A family thanked God after noticing someone had used an Apple AirTag to track their daughter without permission.
In her interview with Fox 35 Exclusive, Jennifer Gaston said "I'm praising God we have the outcome we have," after discovering that an AirTag has been tracking her family on their trip to a theme park. These devices were coin-sized Apple devices that people attach to their valuable things to keep track of them if they are missing. However, some criminals use the device to track people for ill reasons.
Her daughter, Madison, said she got a notification saying "the owner of an AirTag device was tracking them," while they were on the monorail going back to their car after visiting a theme park.
"We were terrified, we were confused, hurt, and scared," said Jennifer. "She watched it follow us from the tram back to our vehicle."
For several hours, it showed that the device had been tracking them while walking through the theme park. When they couldn't find the device, they went inside the car, locked the doors, drove away, and reported the incident to the police. Despite the device still showing its location in their parking spot, they thought it fell out as they frantically shook out clothes and dumped everything out of their bags.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office took her incident report but without having the AirTag itself, deputies did not consider this incident a criminal violation.
Since its debut in April 2021, criminals have been using the tracking device to do bad things: from stealing items, such as vehicles, to clandestinely stalking people. Earlier this year, Apple company addressed the criminals in a statement. They said that the company recognized the people's concerns about overusing the device for malicious or criminal purposes.
They assured that "Apple has been working closely with various safety groups and law enforcement agencies. Through our evaluations and these discussions, we have identified even more ways we can update AirTag safety warnings and help guard against further unwanted tracking."
Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said that the company dismissed their comments regarding the device. He said that they warned Apple that "AirTags were dangerous." He said that AirTags were being abused today exactly the way they feared it to be.
However, Apple claimed that as they were working actively with the law enforcement on all AirTag-related requests, they found out "the incidents of misuse are rare, however, each instance is one too many."
Erica Olsen, director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, said she was glad to see Apple's efforts "to engage in the conversation about victim safety."
Renee Williams, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, said that the unwanted tracking alerts only show that "Apple's system is working and at the same time, raising awareness of this issue." He said that their office was open to becoming an addition to law enforcement if anyone had experienced technology-enabled abuse, stalking, or harassment.
