How Apple AirTags are becoming Dangerous

Apple's air tags are being used to steal possessions to hijack cars and even to follow people home so m going to explain everything you need to m going to actually use one to stalk someone myself so just in case you didn't know apple released air tags in 2021 they're these tiny little chips that you can attach onto all of your key belongings to track where they are they're pretty phenomenal they only cost 29 well you can get a four pack to 99 which makes them 25 a pop they're extremely discreet can attach onto almost anything and fit almost anywhere and most importantly they can track across the globe with almost pinpoint accuracy here's the problem though all the things that make air tags the perfect tool to keep track of your belongings also make them an enticing tool for criminals so let's test it this is josh my camera guy 'm going to slip an air tag into his coat pocket ll give him 10 minutes to run as far away as he possibly can and to hide in as obscure a location as possible then we'll see if the air tag leads me to him 10 minutes starts  you could argue that all the problems people are facing with these air tags stem from how they're made see this might look like a simple plastic and steel button inside is a speaker antennae Buetooth chip apple's custom-made u1 chipset and a replaceable battery you might be thinking  didn't mention GPS surely this uses  that's how you get location data right but no the reason apple has managed to make air tags so inexpensive and the reason that this one battery can push out an entire year of continuous use is that Airtags don't need to communicate with the networks directly they're built to piggyback off the  and signal of other apple products all device is closest to  use that device's location to figure out where it is and then use that device's signal to send that info back to you so let's say that m walking around with my air tag in one hand and my iPhone in the other because there's an iPhone right next to it this air tag will always be displaying its exact location using that iPhone signal but even if m using an android device the tracking still works because every time come within about 30 feet of even someone else's  device this will be able to use that to update my position so m walking past a building for example there's a pretty good chance that on the other side of this wall there is someone using an apple product and that's all it needs hopefully you're starting to see why air tags are becoming such a controversy imagine this scenario you've spent your whole life working so that you can afford to buy yourself a really nice car but one day you're driving this nice car around and someone else decides that they like it too they grab an airtight stick it into your car exhaust and then all of a sudden theoretically for up to a year because that's how long the battery lasts they'll be able to see exactly which shops you're going into which restaurants you're eating in and most importantly where you live and where you park this extremely nice valuable vehicle and think how easy is it to slap one of these on a car can put one here  could put one here  could put one here it might as well be invisible and also remember that as someone approaches an air tag that they've planted it's not just that they can use  technology to get a rough area that it's in they can use  technology thanks to the u1 chip on this air tag to literally get pointed directions right up until they're on top of it this is actually happening people have reported finding air tags inside their vehicles behind their number plates and probably the most disturbing even in their coat pockets after walking home at night with someone following them and hey if you want to follow the latest tech news then a sub to the channel would be tag tickle 'll let myself out now to give apple some credit they have been updating air tags with features to try and prevent them from being used maliciously these features do limit what could have otherwise been a bit of a privacy nightmare like for example if an air attack has been separated from the account that is registered to then at some random time between 8 and 24 hours after that separation happens it will now start using its inbuilt speaker to beep continuously like this so if someone is being unknowingly stored then this will obviously draw their attention to that fact it's a great attempt by apple it's not really a solution because would you believe it people are now selling silent air tags which have had their speakers removed but also if you randomly find an air tag that you don't recognize you can hold it against the back of almost any smartphone it will show you the serial number of it which means that even though it's not exactly going to give you their full name and  cash login details there is some traceability in the system plus if you own an iPhone and someone is tracking you because your iPhone will be the device that's giving the air tag its location it will eventually realize that the air tag has been following you for a while and so can send you a notification just to let you know in my testing though this is a bit unreliable like a few times ve purposefully tried to leave the house with one of my air tags and an  that's registered to someone else sometimes get the notification other times  won't if you do get this notification though then the official advice is do not go home because it will lead whoever is following you right to your doorstep instead try to go to a police station try to find the tracker and hand it to them hopefully they can work with apple to find out who put it there in the first place and if you get this notification while you're let's say walking alone then immediately stop what you're doing and check your pockets and if you happen to find an air tag on you then remove the battery by twisting the back cover and taking it out that way you can kind of stop the tracking in action it also means you can keep the air tag to then report it to the police later on the situation gets even murkier if you have an android phone though because obviously apple doesn't own android they can't force google to passively scan for air tags and so apart from their  alarm after eight to 24 hours the only way to know if you're being followed is to head to the play store download their android app called tracker detect and then actively select the option to scan for trackers and to be really honest don't see how it's useful mean for starters apple's not exactly advertising this app and so even though there are over three billion android users it looks like only a hundred thousand or so are using this or in other words zero point  three percent and for this extreme minority who are using it they're not rating it very highly probably for the simple fact that the app doesn't work in the background if you have to be on the app for the app to pick up trackers  surely the only time you'd think to actively check is if you actually found  on you but then if you did all the app will tell you is yeah you have an air tag on you and even with that limitation it still only works in some situations like if m just sitting here have four air tags on the table this can't pick up anything but okay all this leads us to the big question this whole tracker scandal who is actually to blame because this is scary stuff yes the truth is item trackers have existed well before apple made one tile has been making them since 2012 and to be honest their trackers don't have as many safety features as apples do but  guess the reason that air tags in particular are causing such a stir is two things it's fact that unlike tile whose tags can access a web of say 30 million total devices to report their location with apple's air tags can access a finding network of every Ppple device in existence so 1.5 billion devices making them shockingly accurate and improving all time as more and more people enter the  ecosystem and b the fact that whilst professional tracking gear has been available for ages apple has brought that level of precision to an entry-level price point they've they've made it incredibly easy for someone to track you they're popularizing a genre of gadgets for which malicious use is prolific so on one hand yes this whole stalking issue wouldn't have been as much of a problem if apple hadn't entered the market but then is it their fault that their product does a better job than others all right our 10 minutes are up you can see that while m here on the map he was last seen somewhere around here but the cool and slightly scary thing about this is that should just be able to tap for directions and that will lead me to him nothing like a nice little  stroll to wake you up in the morning apparently am one minute away you should be just round this corner there he is he's there what is that josh josh josh hey found me well you're in the private shop that was scarily accurate but  guess what's even more concerning is the fact that he had no way of knowing that knew where he was like he used an android phone he wouldn't have got one of those notifications it hadn't been 24 hours the air tag wouldn't have started bleeping  could have followed him home now even if you never in your life get tracked by an air tag guarantee that at some point you will be being tracked through what you do online and because of this you might know that out of the four monthly subscriptions my most used and my cheapest it's not ten dollars or five dollars it is 249 a month which split between the seven people share it with ends up as 36 cents a person and that 36 cents gets me better prices for products that use browser cookies to try to make things more expensive for me two access to the full internet including sites that are blocked by my region like TV shows from another country and three anonymity every minute that you spend online companies are recording who you are and what you're doing and even if those companies don't have any nefarious intentions for that data when there's a data breach it can fall into the hands of someone who does so give it a go and if you hit the link in the description and use code boss  you not just get it for that 249 a month price you will also get three months for free on top of that it's fully refundable if you don't like it to find out if you're being watched as well as followed check out my video all about the spy cam epidemic or to find out about the wild west that is HFTS that video is right here my name  this is what  is Mr. who's the boss and  will catch you in the next one