It’s been clear for some time that dangerous actors are on different individuals with out their information to trace their places. Trackers have been as effectively. Now,  has obtained some police information that casts some mild on extent of the difficulty.

The publication requested information mentioning Apple AirTags (which the corporate introduced a 12 months in the past) from dozens of police departments from throughout the US. The requests lined an eight-month interval. 

Motherboard acquired 150 stories from eight police departments and located that, in 50 circumstances, ladies known as the cops as a result of they acquired notifications suggesting that somebody was monitoring them with an AirTag or they . Half of these ladies suspected the tags have been planted of their automobile by a person they knew, akin to a present or former romantic companion or their boss.

The overwhelming majority of the stories have been filed by ladies. There was only one case during which a person made a report after suspecting that an ex was utilizing an AirTag (which prices simply $29) to stalk him. Around half of the stories talked about AirTags within the contexts of thefts or robberies.

Just one occasion of AirTag-related stalking can be dangerous sufficient. Fifty stories in eight jurisdictions in eight months is a not insignificant quantity and there are probably different circumstances elsewhere that have not been disclosed. Engadget has contacted Apple for remark.

Although iPhones already robotically detect undesirable close by AirTags, it would do extra to mitigate the difficulty. Later this 12 months, it would rollout an AirTag precision monitoring characteristic for iPhone 11, 12 and 13 to assist individuals extra simply discover unknown trackers. It may even inform iPhone customers extra clearly when somebody could also be utilizing an AirTag to comply with them.

In December, Apple to assist individuals utilizing telephones powered by that OS detect errant AirTags. Tile up to date its with the same characteristic. But these require customers to each pay attention to the risk posed by undesirable trackers and to scan for them manually. Last week, nevertheless, it emerged that Google is exploring , which might assist hold individuals secure ought to it roll out the characteristic.