Although it’s been greater than a 12 months and a half since Apple put its little monitoring doohickey referred to as AirTags in the marketplace, the product has been repeatedly abutilized by stalkers as a approach of maintaining tabs on targets. This week, Apple silently launched particulars on earlier firmware updates to its AirTags that lets customers inform if an unknown AirTag is in your particular person.

On Wednesday, Apple’s Support web page added details about its newest two firmware updates, specifically 2.0.24 and a couple of.0.36. While the latter replace says it fastened the AirTags accelerometer not working in “certain scenarios,” the previous replace could be very fascinating. The replace “enables Precision Finding to help locate an unknown AirTag detected moving with you.” In addition, a consumer’s iPhone will notify customers when an AirTag that’s not with its proprietor is in your particular person. The iPhone can even emit a sound to make it clear it’s been moved.

Any paired AirTag ought to mechanically obtain the replace when it’s inside 33-feet of Bluetooth vary with the iPhone, although the characteristic solely works on iPhone 11, 12, 13, and 14 fashions. The iPhone additionally must be operating iOs 16.2 or later. These updates add to an earlier firmware replace that included “tuning the unwanted tracking sound to more easily locate an unknown AirTag.”

The firmware updates have been launched each final month and this month, based on MacRumors, but it surely took the corporate till now to explain what the updates truly did. The characteristic works utilizing ultra wideband, which implies AirTags in international locations like Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Indonesia, and extra are nonetheless greater than able to maintaining tabs on unsuspecting individuals. And in fact, the characteristic does nothing for any Android consumer who may need an AirTag on them. For that, Apple has needed to launch a separate app.

The first replace from final summer time made AirTags beep in the event that they weren’t close to the unique customers’ cellphone after eight to 24 hours, however clearly this had blended outcomes. Back in February, Apple made a statement about how they have been working to stop AirTags for “unwanted tracking” The firm already touted its “first-ever proactive system to alert you of unwanted tracking,” however customers had been complaining about receiving alerts once they borrowed buddies’ keys. The tech big promised extra updates to permit customers to find out the place an undesirable AirTag is on their particular person.

Ever since they have been launched as a competitor to the Tile monitoring system, critics have questioned simply how ripe AirTags have been for abuse. A Washington Post article from May 2021 first introduced up the query of AirTag stalking, but it surely’s gotten a lot worse since then. Motherboard reported in April that they uncovered 50 instances from the eight months prior the place ladies reported being tracked with AirTags. Indianapolis police stated again in June {that a} girl allegedly used AirTags to stalk her boyfriend and later homicide him.

Apple has launched updates over time to scan for AirTags, however none of these new options have really depleted the danger of technologically-enabled stalking. A brand new class motion lawsuit filed by two ladies and stalking victims earlier this month claims the corporate has been “heedless” in proliferating its AirTags. One of the ladies in that swimsuit claimed her iPhone alerted her to the AirTag in her neighborhood. 

What all this reveals is how such a comparatively innocuous piece of expertise can have huge unintended penalties, however Apple’s response to the privateness nightmare it’s created has been gradual and piecemeal. While the corporate touts that it’ll surrender any info to regulation enforcement concerning monitoring, Apple’s technique places the onus on common individuals to pay attention to the expertise and actively scan for it on their particular person.