They were designed to help people keep track of their valuables, devices and other products - but some claim that Apple AirTags have been used to track people.
Reports of people using the quarter-size tracking device to allegedly stalk others have arisen since AirTags’s product launch in April 2021 and have led to calls for the tech giant to review its security measures.
"When you're selling a cheap, ubiquitous tracking device, the product is the problem. It really is a question of are you going to stop selling this before more people get hurt?" Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, told "Nightline."
When AirTags have been paired to a user’s iOS device, that user can track the location of their own AirTag using their phone. In June 2021, Apple updated their existing security measures so that a user's phone would more precisely notify them if an unknown AirTag was moving with them, emitting a sound within 24 hours, updated from three days.
There have been reports of people finding someone else's AirTags in their purses, backpacks, coats and other belongings. In December of 2022, two women filed a class-action lawsuit in California, claiming the product made it easier for them to be stalked and harassed by abusers.
In June 2022, an Indianapolis man was allegedly killed by an ex-girlfriend who police say used an AirTag to track him down. The family of Andre Smith, 26, has called for reform, citing the incident; Marion County police say Smith’s ex-girlfriend, Gaylyn Morris, placed an AirTag in the back of Smith’s car and followed him without his knowledge. Morris has pled not guilty to a murder charge and is awaiting trial.
LaPrecia Sanders, Smith's mother, told "Nightline," that after police let them take Smith’s car home, the family’s older son ripped out the seat of the car and found the tracker.
"That night of his murder, the young lady that was in the car with him, she told me and my family that Andre had told her, 'Somebody's following us,' and he kept lookin' at his phone," Sanders told "Nightline." "They were looking around the car, but they just couldn't find the Apple AirTag."
Smith's story is one of many cases of former partners allegedly using the tracker on unsuspecting victims.