A small device, the size of a coin, can transform from a useful tool for finding your lost items into a potential means of surveillance. Smart tags – such as Apple AirTag, Samsung SmartTag or Chipolo, just to mention a few – were born to help locate lost items. In the wrong hands, however, they can become tools for stalking others. This is demonstrated by a very serious news event that recently occurred in Odessa, Florida, where 2 men were arrested for hiding an AirTag under a car to locate the home of a couple and attack them.
Understanding if you are being followed via a smart tag is not always easy. These devices exploit Bluetooth technology and the widespread network of smartphones that surround them, anonymously communicating their location to the central Apple or Google servers, thus allowing the owners of these small devices to track them. Consequently, those who use them illicitly do not need to be physically close to the victim to control them: they can do everything from the comfort of their smartphone screen. There are, however, tools and signals that allow you to notice that you are being tracked by third parties. Apple, for example, has introduced automatic notifications for updated iPhones and a specific app for Android (so that even competing devices can track any other people’s AirTags present nearby).
It must be said that these tech remedies do not always work 100% and for this reason it is also important to resort to some purely practical measures, for example regularly checking bags, suitcases and, as recent US news teaches, even the outside of your car. Let’s delve deeper into the topic by seeing how smart tags can be used for stalking and how to notice it.
How smart tags are misused to spy on others
What happened to the unfortunate couple from Odessa is just an example of how Bluetooth trackers, created with absolutely legitimate purposes, can be misused for criminal purposes. In the case of the Odessa couple, the two attackers had placed the small tracker under the victims’ SUV and followed them home, where they threatened them with a firearm. The home alarm prevented the worst, but the affair highlighted an increasingly widespread problem: the ease with which commonly used tools can become means of surveillance.
Tracking, in general, can happen in two ways. The first is purely digital, through the installation of stalkerware, i.e. software hidden in the victim’s smartphone that records his position, messages and activities. The second, more “physical”, consists of placing a wireless beacon – that is, a small Bluetooth transmitter, like a smart tag – on an object of the person to be monitored (his car, his bag, and so on). In both cases, the victim may not notice anything for days, if not weeks, until he receives an alert from his smartphone or notices some suspicious movement.
AirTags, like many other similar smart tags, use ultra-wideband technology and Apple’s global network of devices to communicate their location. This means that, if someone hides an AirTag in your car or backpack, the same infrastructure that allows you to track lost objects will allow the attacker to follow you quite easily and precisely. Apple, aware of this risk, has introduced numerous countermeasures: automatic notifications, acoustic alerts emitted by the AirTags themselves and the ability to locate the device via the “Where Is” app for iOS and the “Find Tracker” app for Android. However, some criminals circumvent these systems by tampering with trackers or by taking advantage of the fact that many users do not adequately exploit anti-tracking features.
How to understand if you are being spied on via a smart tag and how to protect yourself
Understanding whether you are potentially being spied on therefore requires some care on our part. If you have an iPhone or iPad updated to iOS 17.5 or iPadOS 17.5 (or later), you will theoretically be informed of the presence of a suspicious AirTag nearby with a notification. To make sure that the function in question is active, however, follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app and go to Privacy & Security > Location Services.
- Activate location services by moving the top switch to ON.
- Go to the Settings > Bluetooth section and turn on Bluetooth if it is not already turned on.
- Go to Settings > Notifications > Tracking Notifications and move the switch next to Allow notifications to ON.
- Make sure Airplane mode is turned off. In fact, when the device is in airplane mode, you do not receive any tracking notifications.
Android users can download Apple’s Find Tracker app, but they must remember to start the scan manually. Regarding this app, Apple explains:
Tracker Detect searches for any trackers of objects separated from their owners that are within Bluetooth range and are compatible with Apple’s Find My network. This includes AirTags and compatible trackers that use the Find My network. If you think a person is using an AirTag or other tracker to monitor your location, you can scan to try to find them. If the app detects a compatible AirTag or tracker near you for at least 10 minutes, you can play a sound to find it.
If your smartphone doesn’t signal anything and you still suspect you’re being followed, it’s useful to pay attention to any metallic noises or clicks, for example those coming from unusual areas of the vehicle: they could be attributable to an AirTag (or in any case a smart tag) trying to emit an acoustic signal that identifies its presence.
In case you find one, the simplest procedure to disable it is to remove the battery. In the case of Apple’s AirTags, to do this, turn the object upside down, press on the metal part with the Apple logo and rotate counterclockwise: the battery compartment will open, which you can remove. Each AirTag also has a serial number, visible under the battery or readable via the NFC function (a short-range communication technology) by bringing the smartphone closer. If you believe that the object has been used to track you, the best thing to do, however, is to contact the police immediately and hand over the object to them, so that they can begin their investigation.
