#[1]alternate [2]Two Women Sue Apple Over AirTag Stalking

  (BUTTON)
  (BUTTON) Sections
  (BUTTON) SEARCH
  [3]Skip to content[4]Skip to site index
  [5]Business

  [6]Today's Paper

  [7]Business|Two Women Sue Apple Over AirTag Stalking
  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/business/apple-airtag-lawsuit.html
    * (BUTTON) Give this articleGive this articleGive this article
    * (BUTTON)
    * (BUTTON)

  Advertisement
  [8]Continue reading the main story

  Supported by
  [9]Continue reading the main story

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.
    * Send any friend a story
      As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month.
      Anyone can read what you share.
      (BUTTON)
      (BUTTON) Give this articleGive this articleGive this article
    * (BUTTON)
    * (BUTTON)

  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."

More on Big Tech

    * Microsoft: The Federal Trade Commission, in one of the most
      aggressive actions taken by federal regulators in decades to
      [12]check the power of the tech industry's giants, [13]sued to
      block the company's [14]$69 billion acquisition of the video game
      maker Activision Blizzard.
    * Meta: The Biden administration is [15]trying to prevent Facebook
      parent's company from buying a virtual reality app developer,
      arguing that the acquisition would "create a monopoly."
    * Apple: Apple's largest iPhone factory, in the city of Zhengzhou,
      China, is dealing with a shortage of workers. Now, that plant
      [16]is getting help from an unlikely source: the Chinese
      government.
    * Amazon: The company appears set to [17]lay off approximately 10,000
      people in corporate and technology jobs, in what would be the
      largest cuts in the company's history.

  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.

  Advertisement
  [20]Continue reading the main story

Site Information Navigation

    * [21]© 2022 The New York Times Company

    * [22]NYTCo
    * [23]Contact Us
    * [24]Accessibility
    * [25]Work with us
    * [26]Advertise
    * [27]T Brand Studio
    * [28]Your Ad Choices
    * [29]Privacy Policy
    * [30]Terms of Service
    * [31]Terms of Sale
    * [32]Site Map
    * [33]Canada
    * [34]International
    * [35]Help
    * [36]Subscriptions

References

  Visible links
  1. nyt://article/ce37bf41-d84d-5df8-b08f-34b792696247
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/svc/oembed/json/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2022%2F12%2F06%2Fbusiness%2Fapple-airtag-lawsuit.html
  3. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/business/apple-airtag-lawsuit.html#site-content
  4. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/business/apple-airtag-lawsuit.html#site-index
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/section/business
  6. https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper
  7. https://www.nytimes.com/section/business
  8. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/business/apple-airtag-lawsuit.html#after-top
  9. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/business/apple-airtag-lawsuit.html#after-sponsor
 10. https://www.nytimes.com/by/amanda-holpuch
 11. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/business/apple-airtags-safety.html
 12. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/21/technology/microsoft-activision-deal.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-big-tech&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc
 13. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/technology/ftc-microsoft-activision.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-big-tech&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc
 14. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/technology/microsoft-call-of-duty-nintendo.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-big-tech&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc
 15. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/business/meta-virtual-reality-trial-ftc.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-big-tech&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc
 16. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/business/apple-foxconn-china.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-big-tech&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc
 17. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/amazon-layoffs.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-big-tech&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc
 18. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/30/technology/apple-airtags-tracking-stalking.html
 19. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/business/apple-airtags-safety.html
 20. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/business/apple-airtag-lawsuit.html#after-bottom
 21. https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014792127-Copyright-notice
 22. https://www.nytco.com/
 23. https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015385887-Contact-Us
 24. https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015727108-Accessibility
 25. https://www.nytco.com/careers/
 26. https://nytmediakit.com/
 27. https://www.tbrandstudio.com/
 28. https://www.nytimes.com/privacy/cookie-policy#how-do-i-manage-trackers
 29. https://www.nytimes.com/privacy/privacy-policy
 30. https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014893428-Terms-of-service
 31. https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014893968-Terms-of-sale
 32. https://www.nytimes.com/sitemap/
 33. https://www.nytimes.com/ca/?action=click&region=Footer&pgtype=Homepage
 34. https://www.nytimes.com/international/?action=click&region=Footer&pgtype=Homepage
 35. https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us
 36. https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=37WXW

  Hidden links:
 38. https://www.nytimes.com/
 39. https://www.nytimes.com/
 40. https://www.nytimes.com/