Apple AirTags can be useful for things like encounter your key orkeeping tabs on baggage . But it ’s also well - established that the smallquarter - sized tracking devices , can be employ in some less - than - savoury ways . multitude have sued overAirTags being used to enable stalking . Police have claimed the devices have evenpopped up in murder cases .
Yet a new report suggests that federal legal philosophy enforcement might be applying AirTags for their own final stage . The Drug Enforcement Agency used an Apple tracker to carry fishy surveillance in at least one case , accord toa reportfrom Forbes bring out Thursday . A hunting warrant from May 2022 reportedly find and viewed by the way out documented DEA officials set one of the Apple gimmick inside an intercepted software from Shanghai , conceive to be en route to an illegal drug maker .
Instead of simply going to the savoir-faire on the package , drug enforcement agent opted to slip an AirTag inside a pill press contained in the box for follow the delivery ’s exact bm . “ accurate positioning selective information for the [ pill press ] will allow investigators to obtain grounds about where such individuals store drug and/or drug proceeds , where they obtain hold centre , and where else they distribute them , ” write the federal officials in the search imprimatur , per Forbes .
Apple AirTags are ripe for misuse. Now federal law enforcement seems to be hopping on the bandwagon of unintended applications for the devices.Photo:Steve Heap(Shutterstock)
Policeoften use GPS tracking machine — which AirTags aren’t — in investigations to attempt to keep pill on suspects . However , the DEA ’s AirTag ploy last twelvemonth “ come out to be the first known font of a federal agency turning Apple ’s location - tracking gimmick into a surveillance applied science , ” wrote Forbes .
It ’s not whole clear why the bureau would ’ve opted for an AirTag over a different character of tracker , or how often law enforcement have used AirTrags . Gizmodo reached out to the DEA for gossip , but did not immediately get a response . Yet a retired Arizona detective , Brady Wilkins , told Forbes that possibly the Apple twist proved more reliable or more easily hidden than the alternatives . If nothing else , the tech giant ’s Bluetooth - enabled AirTags are verywell connected to the vast networkof Apple devices . admission to that Apple web mean AirTags can dependably transmit information from lots of different places .
Yet despite their compact size of it and well - connect nature , Apple AirTags are probably not the best tools for cops to be using . Apple has recently puta fair amount of effortto attempt andaddress headache around misuseof its intersection . The party fight firmware updates in December 2022 that supply automatonlike notificationswhen an unfamiliar AirTag is presentin an iPhone drug user ’s vicinity . Previous surety measures also mean thatAirTags get down piddle a chirping soundafter being away from their possessor ’s iPhone for too long .
Gizmodo reached out to Apple for more selective information on if and how legal philosophy enforcement might be able to sidestep those feature of speech , but the company did n’t immediately respond .
As Forbes point out , it ’s unknown how well the AirTag exploit for the DEA . The granted warranty allowed trailing for 45 days nationwide . “ However , the intended recipient of the pill wardrobe has not yet been blame with any criminal offence , ” the electric receptacle wrote .
no matter , the DEA ’s weaponization of an AirTag as a surveillance tool highlights just how prone to misuse such trailing equipment can be . And Apple - product specific updates might not be enough to battle the job .
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