Chief: Tracking device may be unsafe

A popular stocking stuffer this year has morphed into what Crowley Police Chief Jimmy Broussard calls “a whole new level of stalking.”
Apple’s new AirTags are $30 wireless devices that help you locate just about anything. Simply clip the button-sized devise onto your keys and it’ll help you find where you accidentally dropped them in a parking lot.
However, if someone else slips an AirTag into your bag or car without your knowledge, it could also be used to covertly track everywhere you go.
An app named “Find My” on iPhones tracks how far away the tag is and displays a map with the location.
But the AirTag connects with more than the owner’s iPhone. Using Bluetooth technology, an AirTag sends a signal that any nearby iPhone, iPad or Mac can detect. Those devices can then send the location of an AirTag to Apple’s cloud computing network and on to the owner.
Apple says that only the owner of an AirTag can see where it is, and that the device itself doesn’t store location data or history.
To discourage what it calls “unwanted tracking,” Apple built technology into AirTags to warn potential victims, including audible alarms and messages about suspicious AirTags that pop up on iPhones. Unfortunately, similar warnings aren’t available for the roughly half of Americans who use Android phones.
Broussard said that, in the past month, his department has seen two cases of people concerned about notifications they received on their iPhones. He noted that, while this number may not seem like a lot, his department isn’t alone. Other departments in other parishes are seeing it as well.
“We see crime evolving into something new. The old days of someone just breaking in and stealing a television and leaving, that’s by the wayside,” Broussard said. “Today we’re seeing, using means of internet and media and technology; they’re committing bigger crimes.”
The police chief said that these devices can facilitate a variety of crimes for criminals.
“This has kind of been linked to sex trafficking, where (the perpetrators) can keep an eye on (the victims) until it’s a ‘good time,’ so it’s a very dangerous situation.”
He also said that criminals are using the AirTags to track cars in order to steal them.
“I’m not trying to scare people, I’m just saying we have to be cautious in today’s society,” Broussard said.
Apple’s website says AirTag is “designed to discourage unwanted tracking,” which is why you may receive an unusual notification to your iPhone.
Officers, however, still encourage you to report any suspicious activity you experience so they can help you, noting that if they can’t, a mechanic can.