Apple Is Being Sued for Facilitating Cyberstalking Through AirTag Abuse

Apple's AirTags abuse is real, and two women are making sure Apple learns about it the hard way.

The women have recently filed a digital privacy class action lawsuit against Apple for facilitating cyberstalking through its AirTags, which stalkers could potentially use to track people.

AirTag abuse has been in the minds of people since early 2022, with a family discovering they are being tracked in Disney World through a stalker's AirTag being one of the latest cases.

Apple Digital Privacy Class Action Lawsuit Details

The two women suing Apple for cyberstalking said that Apple made it easy for stalkers to track them and their targets to eventually terrorize them.

According to a Bloomberg report, one of the two women stated in the complaint they filed that her ex-boyfriend planted an AirTag in the wheel well of her car to find out where she had moved to avoid his harassment.

The other woman said her estranged husband slipped an AirTag in her child's backpack to track her movements.

Although Apple added and improved safeguards to its AirTags to prevent stalkers and criminals from using AirTags to track people's movements, they were found to be wanting.

You may remember that Apple advertised its AirTags to be "stalker proof" in 2021 and that it released updates for them to notify users of Apple devices if there was an "unwanted AirTag" within Bluetooth range for an extended period of time.

The women's lawsuit also cited a few more crimes that were facilitated thanks to Apple's AirTags. The women's complaint said that an ex-boyfriend used the device to track and shoot his ex-girlfriend in Akron, Ohio, while a woman in Indianapolis, Indiana, hid an AirTag in her ex-boyfriend's car.

The device allowed this woman to follow him to a bar and run him over, killing him.

As such, the women further said in the complaint that the safeguards Apple placed in its AirTags were "inadequate," adding that they do little to quickly warn individuals if they are being tracked.

The lawsuit also claims it is seeking to represent others "who have been and who are at risk of stalking via [Apple's AirTags.]"

If the court finds the case to be in favor of the two women, it will order Apple to award them and others unspecified monetary damages.

The case is Hughes v. Apple, Inc., 3:22-cv-07668 US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Potential AirTag Abuse And Past Cases

The two women who filed the class action lawsuit aren't the only ones to fall victim to stalkers using Apple's AirTags.

A family discovered that a stalker used an AirTag to track them while visiting Walt Disney World for more than four hours since 7:09 pm EST in early May.

The family was able to ditch the stalker by shaking their clothes and dumping their belongings in their bags to remove the AirTag. However, the stalker remains at large as the family didn't have the AirTag with them when they went to the police.

Security expert Geoffrey Fowler from The Washington Post found that it is easy to slip an AirTag in someone's bag or car without the victim's knowledge due to how small it is, allowing a stalker to track them within 800 feet.

Although Apple added a "Moving With You" AirTag alert in early May, there is still guesswork to do as the notification doesn't necessarily mean someone is tracking a person through an AirTag. According to MacRumors, the notification could trigger if someone borrowed an item with an Airtag or if they are near a lost item with one attached.