Warning, They Can Know Where You Are in Real Time. How to Protect Yourself
All it takes is an AirTag placed in your bag for anyone to know where you are, in real time, without you noticing. This part is well known. iPhones alert you automatically if an AirTag that is not yours is following you. But if you have an Android phone, nobody warns you. Here is what you need to do to stop anyone from spying on your location.
Roughly 70 percent of smartphones run Android. Most people are exposed and have no idea.
AirTags work through a network of nearly two billion Apple devices worldwide. Every iPhone that passes near an AirTag silently updates its position, even if that iPhone is not yours. Someone just needs to walk past you. Great for finding lost keys, but unfortunately also great for following a person without them knowing.
On iPhone protection is automatic. If an AirTag that is not yours follows you, you get a notification, no setup needed: “Watch out, there is an AirTag that is not yours following you.”
On Android alerts exist, but they only work if you do not have an old phone and if you have Google Play Services updated. If you do not, nobody warns you. And even when it works, independent tests show that detection is slower and less reliable. You could be followed for hours before anything warns you. If it warns you at all.
To help protect you, AirTags have a small speaker that makes a sound after several hours if separated from their owner. A signal to notice something strange in your bag. The problem is that a small hole drilled under the battery disconnects the speaker. No more sound. No more warning. And these modified AirTags are already being sold ready to use on eBay.
How to protect yourself: if you have Android, go into settings and search for “unknown tracker alerts.” Make sure it is on. Download AirGuard, free, open source, built by a German university, no commercial interest. It scans in the background and alerts you if something is following you.
Apple and Google are working together on a shared standard called DULT for detecting unwanted trackers. The direction is right. But the problem exists right now.
iPhone users are mostly covered. Android users: settings, “unknown tracker alerts,” turn it on. And install AirGuard.
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