A 26-year-old swimsuit experienced a terrifying scenario last week when she realized a stranger had been tracking her through an Apple AirTag. Thankfully, she received a notification that someone had been following her “for a while.”
Brooks Nader, 26, was out with friends in New York City when the AirTag was slipped into her coat pocket, she said in an Instagram video. She had no idea it had happened as she visited several different bars with her friends. While walking home, she received an alert on her iPhone that an “unknown accessory” had been following her.
“For those asking, it’s not my AirTag; it’s someone randoms, who must have slipped it into my belongings while out,” she said in her Instagram video. “Thank you all for checking in and sending helpful articles. I want this to be a PSA to all my ladies to please, please check your belongings.”
Since Apple released the AirTag in April, there have been several accounts of stalkers and thieves taking advantage of the technology. But Apple says it designed the product to help prevent those things from happening. The AirTag is supposed to notify people if they have one not registered to them on their person.
“AirTag is designed to discourage unwanted tracking,” the tech giant says on its website. “If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s traveling with you and send you an alert.”
Receiving the alert about the unidentified AirTag may have very well saved Nader’s life.
“We take customer safety very seriously and are committed to AirTag’s privacy and security,” Apple told the New York Post. “AirTag is designed with a set of proactive features to discourage unwanted tracking — a first in the industry — and the Find My network includes a smart, tunable system with deterrents that applies to AirTag, as well as third-party products as part of the Find My network accessory program.”
