As useful as Apple’s Bluetooth trackers are to keep track of your things, the small button-sized device has recently been notoriously glorified as a cheap and easy way to track people.
Last December, Canadian law enforcement announced that AirTags were being found in luxury vehicles to later be stolen. Over recent months, numerous stories have surfaced on social media of people finding AirTags hidden in their belongings.
Quite recently, on the 5th of April, a Texas man shot and killed a suspected truck thief using Apple AirTag. Similarly, a sports-illustrated model, Brooks Nader, said she found one in her coat pocket after visiting a Manhattan bar.
If you’re like me, you may have been freaked out by these headlines pushed your way. But, a lot of these headlines can be overblown and heart-sinking. These incidents of AirTag misuse are rare; however, each instance is one too many, says Apple.
The other spectrum has people who use AirTag for good – like, seriously good. They are attaching it to their keys, and bags, stashing it in (their) cars and even slipping one in their child’s school bag to track their footprints which Apple condemns doing. However, if done right and lawfully through consent from your child or anyone, the tiny little tool can be helpful to track a person.
Here’s an ethical way to use AirTag to track a person
You can use the tiny, battery-powered Apple’s Bluetooth tracking device to track your wife and kids. Yes, it’s wrong to track people without their permission.
If you find unwanted AirTag tracking, you rush to the police and explain to them your situation. But, if you use it properly, it can really find you the location of a lost person, wife, child, or even elderly person.
The best way to use AirTag to track a person ethically is to slip an AirTag into their car or backpack. You can also hide it in the trunk of their car or under the seat of their bike.
There are certainly plenty of legitimate uses for this technology. Having a tracker in a teen’s car, with their knowledge and consent, can provide peace of mind to a parent. Bluetooth trackers have helped a family keep a moving company honest and located a stolen car.
So, yes, AirTags can be used for far more good than far more evil. These things are affordable but let you track your stolen stuff across the country with far more frequency.
Dan Guido, a technology CEO in Brooklyn got his electric scooter stolen. Amusingly, he had placed Apple AirTag in the stem of his electric scooter and another in the wheel. The scooter was his primary mode of transportation. Soon he followed the signal on his iPhone and narrowed its likely location down to one block. Eventually, he recovered his stolen electric bike from a bike store, which was sitting in the open, all dreadful.
However, you can tell that person to know how to track an Apple AirTag.
- Open Find My app
- Tap on the Items tab
- Choose your AirTag
- If your AirTag is nearby, it’ll display the distance and direction of it, so you can follow the prompts on your screen to be reunited with it.
- You can also tell your family or friend to play a sound to let AirTag beep
