Apple announces AirTag update to tackle unwanted tracking

According to the company, the AirTag "was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people", and these forthcoming changes aim to make that clear.

New Delhi: Apple has announced that it is making some updates to AirTags with an aim to reduce unwanted tracking.

According to the company, the AirTag “was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people”, and these forthcoming changes aim to make that clear.

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The company announced it will soon implement a series of updates to both AirTags and the Find My network, initially beginning with new privacy warnings, alerts and documentation.

The warning alerts will make it clear that the AirTag is linked to an Apple ID, that using it to track people is a crime, and that law enforcement can request identifying information about the owner of the AirTag.

Apple also said it’s been actively working with law enforcement on all AirTag-related requests it receives, and noted it’s able to provide the account details in response to valid law enforcement request.

In addition, the company said it heard from users how they received an alert about an “Unknown Accessory Detected”, which made them think an unknown AirTag was tracking them.

Apple will now update this alert to indicate that “AirPods” have been travelling with the user instead of an “Unknown Accessory”.