#[1]alternate [2]Two Women Sue Apple Over AirTag Stalking
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Two Women Sue Apple Over AirTag Stalking
One woman found an AirTag tracking device in the wheel well of her car
and a second woman found an AirTag in her child's backpack, the lawsuit
said.
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An Apple AirTag, about the size of a quarter.
Apple updated the AirTag in February after concerns were raised about
how it could be used to stalk people. Credit...Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, via
Shutterstock
By [10]Amanda Holpuch
Dec. 6, 2022
Two women sued Apple on Monday over the dangers of its AirTag tracking
devices in the hands of stalkers, saying the company had failed to heed
warnings from advocacy groups and news reports.
The proposed class action lawsuit was filed on Monday in the United
States District Court for the Northern District of California and
accuses Apple of failing to introduce effective safeguards that would
prevent stalkers from using AirTags to track people. The women said the
devices had been used by their former partners to track them.
Apple introduced AirTags, which cost $29 and are about the size of a
quarter, last year as a device that could be used to track personal
items like keys and wallets. Other devices pick up their Bluetooth
signals; some iPhone users get alerts if a nearby AirTag is moving
alongside them. Advocates for survivors of domestic violence warned
early on that stalkers could take advantage of the trackers.
"With a price point of just $29, it has become the weapon of choice of
stalkers and abusers," the lawsuit said.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company
[11]made changes to the products early this year after complaints,
saying, "We condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use
of our products."
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Both plaintiffs in the lawsuit said that their former partners had used
AirTags to stalk them and that they continued to fear for their safety.
The court papers said that Lauren Hughes, who lives in Travis County,
Texas, learned that an AirTag was being used to track her in August
2021 after the breakup of a three-month relationship. Ms. Hughes's
stalker left her threatening voice mail messages and made abusive posts
on her social media accounts.
Ms. Hughes decided to move after the stalker left items outside her
apartment. While she was staying at a hotel during the move, she
received a notification on her phone that an unknown AirTag was
traveling with her. She found it in the wheel well of her car. After
she moved, her stalker posted a photo online of a taco truck in her new
neighborhood and included "#airt2.0" next to a winking face emoji in
the caption, the suit said.
The second plaintiff, who lives in Brooklyn, chose not to provide her
name and is referred to as Jane Doe in the court papers. She found an
AirTag in her child's backpack this summer after a "contentious
divorce," and the lawsuit said that her stalker had "a commitment to
continuing to use AirTags to track, harass, and threaten her."
The lawsuit documents concerns raised by domestic violence groups,
digital privacy experts and in news articles just after Apple announced
the AirTag in April 2021, including [18]a December 2021 article in The
New York Times that featured interviews with seven women who believed
they had been tracked with AirTags.
[19]In February, Apple said that it would update the AirTag to make it
harder for people to use them to track others without their knowledge.
The changes included improving the alert system that lets people with
iPhones know that an unknown AirTag is nearby.
The lawsuit said that the company's safeguards were "woefully
inadequate," in part because they do not offer automatic protections
for Android users, who must download an app to get a warning that an
unknown AirTag is nearby.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for owners of iOS or Android
devices who have been tracked with an AirTag or are at-risk of being
stalked.
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