A Tennessee man has been arrested for using an Apple AirTag in the wrong way after he allegedly used the tracker to stalk his ex-wife.
Carlos Atkins was charged with what the Fox News local affiliate station reports is called “electronic tracking of a motor vehicle.” Atkins is alleged to have tracked down his victim’s car so he could put roses on it. His ex-wife found the AirTag in her car, and reportedly Atkins has confessed that he placed it there.
The woman also told police that when she moved in with her brother, Atkins allegedly came and put roses on her car.
The ex-wife told police that Atkins followed her home on Monday from a Mississippi restaurant to her sister’s home in Memphis. Afterward, the victim called his daughter and asked her to tell Atkins not to contact her again.
Apple has commented on the issue of stalking.
“AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property,” an Apple spokesperson said, “and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products.”
“Unwanted tracking has long been a societal problem, and we took this concern seriously in the design of AirTag,” continued Apple. “It’s why the Find My network is built with privacy in mind, uses end-to-end encryption, and why we innovated with the first-ever proactive system to alert you of unwanted tracking.”
“We hope this starts an industry trend for others to also provide these sorts of proactive warnings in their products,” said the spokesperson.
Apple’s AirTags can be extremely useful when used to track purses, suitcases and briefcases, keys, and other intended uses. Unfortunately, AirTags have also been used for illegal trackings, such as reported above. In January, New York Police Department officers discovered an Apple AirTag hidden under their car’s hood.
The AirTag’s anti-stalking feature likely alerted the officers to the tracker’s presence. The feature sends a notification to nearby iPhones when an AirTag is near. It is believed that an alert was the way Carlos Atkins’ AirTag was discovered.