Apple is being sued by two women over AirTag stalking. The women claim that Apple makes it too simple for ex-lovers to follow their whereabouts. A class action lawsuit based on this situation might be filed.
Police are being sued in a different case for allegedly conducting an illegal search. The search was conducted based on an iPhone that was located via the Find My app.
As soon as the tracking device was introduced, there were reports of AirTag stalking. This wasn’t because tracking systems were novel at the time. Rather, their high-profile introduction drew them to the attention of both customers and criminals.
The anti-stalking capabilities were subsequently improved twice by Apple, yet even those changes weren’t sufficient to stop abuse. The good news is that stalkers who are stupid enough to utilise AirTags will almost certainly be discovered.
Two women claimed that AirTag was used for stalking
Two women filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. claiming that the company’s AirTag products make it simple for stalkers to locate and threaten victims.
The proposed class-action complaint was submitted on Monday in federal court in San Francisco. It claims that an ex-boyfriend of one of the women who filed the lawsuit installed an AirTag in the wheel well of her car. Additionally he was able to determine where she had moved to avoid his harassment.
The other woman said that her estranged spouse put an AirTag in her child’s backpack and used it to track her travels. A lady in Indianapolis, Indiana, planted an AirTag in her ex-car, boyfriend’s followed him to a bar, and drove him over. In another case, an ex-boyfriend used the gadget to track and shoot a woman in Akron, Ohio.
As of the time of writing, Apple has not responded to a request for comment.
Police filed a lawsuit regarding Find Search in my app
Unrelated to this case, Arstechnica reports that a woman in Colorado is suing Colorado police for allegedly illegally searching her property based on an allegedly ambiguous iPhone location provided by the Find My app.
Ruby Johnson, 77, was uninformed of the situation when she opened her front door to see a SWAT team gathered on her yard.
She learned much later that a stolen truck—reportedly with six firearms and an iPhone secreted inside—had been mistakenly thought to be parked in her garage based solely on the fact that her house was situated inside a sizable blue “Find My” iPhone app-drawn circle.
She is currently suing a Denver police officer for what she claims was an unauthorised search of her home. This was done as a result of what her legal team described as either an intentionally or recklessly flawed search warrant application that was “wholly devoid of probable cause.”
The iPhone that was taken was located by the victim of the crime using the Find My app. This merely provided a four-block radius for the general location. It appears that the victim came to the conclusion that a specific garage was the most likely site. The address appears to have been searched by police after that without their verifying the location first.
According on the information provided, it appears to be a simple error. It appears likely that the victim believed the exact site was in the centre of the circle. The police assumed the victim had recognised the correct address.