Apple released AirTags last year, giving iOS users a better
way to track and find their belongings. However, the tracking capabilities of
AirTags were so good that many expressed concerns about privacy and safety.
AirTags have already been used to steal cars and follow people without their knowledge,
and now you can find AirTags with disabled speakers for sale online.
That would make it even easier to stalk someone with Apple’s hardware.
Tracking someone or
something remotely is a challenge because you usually need to choose between
accuracy and battery life. A GPS tracker can give you precise locations, but
they need a lot of power. Passive trackers like Tile rely on Bluetooth and can
last ages on a charge. However, they aren’t as accurate. The AirTag caught
people’s attention because it uses ultra-wideband and Apple’s existing network
of iPhones to nail down AirTag locations. And it does it pretty well.
Apple anticipated some
of this, so it equipped the AirTag with a speaker. You can use it to locate
objects, but it also beeps a few times per hour when it’s not connected
directly to the paired phone. That makes it harder to hide an AirTag in someone’s
belongings. You can’t disable this feature in the software, but you can always
change the hardware, and that’s what several online sellers have started doing.
One Etsy seller appeared this past week selling de-noised AirTags
for $78, a substantial markup from the $29 retail price. It looked and worked
the same as other AirTags, except that a small hole had been cut in the housing
to disable the speaker. The listing was removed, but similar devices are
appearing regularly on eBay. And regardless of whether or not anyone is selling
silenced AirTags, it’s trivially easy to mod them yourself—numerous online
tutorials show how to remove the speaker.
There might be
justifications for removing the speaker. For example, if you want to track
something expensive without worrying a thief will find your beeping tag.
However, you have to expect that the primary use case is tracking people
without their consent. An iPhone will be able to alert users to AirTags in
their vicinity, but anyone with an Android phone needs to suspect something is
amiss and download the official Tracker Detect app.
Sweeping for bugs might just be part of everyday life now.