The Christmas season saw many people acquire new gadgets, including tracking devices to help those who are always losing things to keep track of their belongings and avoid the panic that comes with a lost set of house keys. Of the multiple products that address this issue, the clear favourite is Apple’s AirTags. Their ease of use and low price point have driven a surge in popularity, but questions have been raised about their potential for misuse in a criminal context.
An AirTag is a small coin-shaped device that can be attached to an object to help the owner keep track of it. Bluetooth technology is used, rather than traditional GPS, to enable it to communicate with nearby Apple products, regardless of the owner, and with Apple’s iCloud servers. Due to the number of Apple devices in active use (1.8 billion according to CEO Tim Cook), AirTags are afforded multiple points of reference, enabling them to deliver extremely accurate location data very quickly. AirTags have been integrated into Apple’s “FindMy” infrastructure, making them very easy to use for owners of Apple products, and they have a relatively low price point at around £35.
The philosophy of creating products that are accessible and easy to use has driven Apple’s consumer device development since the company’s inception, enabling it to create the huge network of devices that now helps AirTags to operate seamlessly. While it is impressive that we can now be guided to the precise location of a lost object, the lack of barriers to entry is concerning.
The very selling points of AirTags make them potentially damaging for individuals who are targeted by their malicious use. Two of their core advantages – ease of use and access – become areas of concern when the tracking devices are placed in the wrong hands. While the large majority of AirTag owners use them as intended, there have been cases where they have been deployed in insidious ways, such as to stalk a targeted individual. AirTags can be very easily concealed and used to track the location of a person when hidden in a pocket or handbag, or even attached to the bumper of a car.
By April 2022, just a year after their launch, a report stated that over 150 police reports had been filed in the US citing the use of AirTags in monitoring the location of a person. More recent police reports have detailed their involvement in other crimes ranging from car theft to burglary. Apple is currently facing a lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, from two women claiming AirTags were used by their stalkers. The women are seeking unspecified damages for alleged negligence.
Apple has responded to growing public concern over the issue by committing to working with law enforcement to help identify those who misuse its products, as well as rolling out a number of software updates that help combat the problem. AirTags now emit a high-pitched beeping sound if separated from their registered owner for a period of time ranging from 8 to 24 hours, which can alert potential victims that they are being tracked. However, this sound is easy to muffle and can even be disabled altogether, with instructions on how to do so readily available online.
Another major update from Apple has proven more effective, alerting people via a notification on their iPhone if they have been moving with a foreign AirTag. This development, which has already resulted in the arrests of multiple stalkers, allows people to discover any devices that may be tracking their location and turn them over to the police. And in a move that goes against its usual hesitancy to collaborate with other software platforms, Apple has also built an app for Android users to provide the same service. The Android app has failed to gain significant traction, however, with data from Google Play suggesting it has only been downloaded by around 100,000 users. With over three billion active Android devices in existence, more can be done to promote the Android app and raise awareness of the issue it helps protect against.
Although these changes to AirTags have been well-received, some are questioning why they were not included from the start. Although Apple clearly stated when AirTags were launched that its products were meant to track items and not people, some argue that they should have had more safety features included from the beginning to ensure they could not be used for stalking victims.
There are currently only two plaintiffs in the San Francisco lawsuit against Apple, but it has been filed as a class-action which gives it the potential to become more than just a headache for the tech giant. But regardless of the result, the popularity of AirTags looks set to continue. With that in mind, it is important that people are aware of the trackers and their potential for misuse, and understand how to preserve their privacy and protect themselves from the risks.
With Apple’s recent software updates making a difference, it may be wise for Android users to download the app and monitor their own risk. Anyone who discovers their location is being tracked should immediately inform the relevant authorities. With the task of protecting ourselves against privacy and security threats becoming an ever more complex business, it pays to ensure you remain on top of new digital developments and their implications.
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We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email webrequests@digitalis.com
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to webrequests@digitalis.com