Apple’s new AirTag tracking device is an amazing bit of technology—it’s an elegant disc about the size of a stack of four US quarters that communicates its location with other Apple devices using Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband. Pair an AirTag with your iPhone and put it in your laptop bag, and from then on, you can use the Find My app to find your bag no matter where you’ve left it.
The key to the system is Apple’s Find My network of hundreds of millions of Apple devices, which detect nearby AirTags and report their location to Apple’s servers. It’s all completely private and secure, so only the owner of an AirTag can see where it is. All the devices in the Find My network are anonymous, and location data is encrypted at every step of the way. Not even Apple can locate an AirTag or determine the identity of the device that helps find it.
Plus, if you have an iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 with support for Ultra Wideband, the Find My app can use Precision Finding to give you the direction and distance of your nearby items. (“You’re getting warmer!”) If you need more help to locate an AirTag that’s out of sight, you can make it play a sound.
At $29 for one or $99 for a pack of four, AirTags are an inexpensive way to keep track of keys, purses, suitcases, kids’ backpacks, and more. You could even attach one to your dog’s collar, but it would likely be helpful only in urban areas where people with iPhones would come close enough to your rambling pet.
With great power comes great responsibility, though. There are always those who will attempt to use AirTags to track other people’s movements surreptitiously, perhaps a jealous spouse, a vindictive ex, or someone with a creepy crush. It wouldn’t be hard to hide an AirTag in someone’s car, in a seldom-used purse pocket, or in the lining of a coat.
Apple is fully aware of these possibilities and has built three safeguards into the AirTags and the Find My network. Given the potential for abuse, it’s essential that everyone knows what an AirTag is (done!) and how to determine if someone may be using one to track another person (read on!).
-
Safety Alerts: If you get an “AirTag Found Moving With You” alert on your iPhone, you know that there’s an AirTag separated from its owner that’s traveling with you. Most likely, it’s in something you’re borrowing or attached to an item that someone left in your car. If you can’t easily find the AirTag, you may be able to make it play a sound. (That won’t work if the owner is in range or if it has been with you overnight such that its identifier has changed since the alert.) If you know why it’s there, you can pause the safety alerts for a day or disable them permanently for those in your Family Sharing group. If the owner has marked it as lost, you can tap Learn About This AirTag to discover its serial number and contact information for the owner. If there’s no good explanation for why the AirTag is with you, you can remove its battery to prevent it from reporting your location.
-
Safety Sounds: If an AirTag is separated from its owner for 3 days, it will make a sound the next time it moves. There is some concern that 3 days may be too long and that the sound starts only after the AirTag moves. Apple has said it may change the time or tweak the system if the sound isn’t achieving its goal of tattling on maliciously placed AirTags.
-
NFC identification: Let’s say you find an AirTag after a safety alert or sound. Hold an iPhone or other NFC-capable smartphone to the white side of the AirTag and tap the notification to load a website with the AirTag’s serial number and the last four digits of the owner’s phone number (which may help you or the police identify them). If the owner has marked it as lost, you’ll also see their phone number or email address.
The safety alerts appear only on iPhones, of course, but there are two other requirements that must be true as well. First, the iPhone must be running iOS 14.5 or later to display the alerts, so make sure you update. Second, in Settings > YourName > Find My > Find My iPhone, the Find My network option must be enabled. If you don’t want your iPhone to participate in the Find My network, you can turn that option off, but doing so means you’ll never receive a safety alert either.
(A quick aside: the Find My iPhone option in that screen is necessary to locate your iPhone if it’s lost or stolen. It also enables Activation Lock, which prevents a thief from erasing and reactivating your iPhone unless they can find your Apple ID password. Always leave Find My iPhone enabled. The Find My network can also help locate iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches that are offline and can’t report their location to Find My on their own.)
The ultimate takeaway is that if you ever get a safety alert, hear an AirTag making a sound, or find an unexpected AirTag, hold your iPhone or an NFC-capable Android phone to the white side of the AirTag to load a Web page with more information. If you have reason to believe you’re being stalked, contact local law enforcement and give them the AirTag’s serial number, which they can use, with Apple’s help, to identify the AirTag’s owner.
AI Usage Transparency Report
Pre-AI Era · Written before widespread use of generative AI tools
AI Signal Composition
Score: 0.04 · Low AI Influence
Summary
Apple's AirTags are a tracking device that uses Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband to communicate with other Apple devices, providing location data through the Find My network.
Related Posts
Leaving Flickr: Migrating 20,000+ Photos to Synology and Taking Back Control
There’s a certain kind of friction you start to notice when you’ve been using a service for a long time. Not enough to make you leave immediately, but enough to make you pause. Flickr had been that kind of service for me. It quietly held years of photos, uploads from old phones, albums I hadn’t looked at in ages, and a massive "Auto Upload" collection that had grown into something I didn’t fully understand anymore.
How I Finally Passed the PMP Exam (After 12 Years of Waiting)
Back in 2013, I registered for a PMI membership with every intention of pursuing my PMP certification. I downloaded the handbook, bookmarked the eligibility requirements, and even told a few friends that I was going to do it "soon." At the time, I thought getting certified would be a straightforward process, but little did I know what lay ahead in terms of studying and preparation.
10 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Apple Configurator (That Save Mac Admins Hours)
Most of us treat Apple Configurator like a fire extinguisher: break glass, DFU, restore, move on. But it can do a lot more, and when you know the edges, you can turn a bricked morning into a ship-it afternoon. Below are ten things I regularly use (or wish I’d used sooner) that demonstrate its capabilities beyond just emergency recovery.
The Evolution of Apple Certification: A Journey Through Versions, Challenges & Growth
When I recently passed the Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) exam again, I paused to reflect — not just on this milestone, but on the long path I’ve walked through Apple’s certification landscape. My first certification dates back to macOS 10.5, and over the years, I’ve earned credentials across nearly every version since. In that time, the exams — and Apple itself — have transformed significantly.
Secure Software, Secure Career: How I Passed the CSSLP
After passing the CISSP earlier this year, I decided to follow it up with the **Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP)** certification. For those unfamiliar, CSSLP is an ISC2 certification that focuses specifically on secure software development practices across the full SDLC—from requirements and design to coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance. My goal in pursuing this certification was to further develop my skills in ensuring the security of software throughout its entire lifecycle.
Managing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for Android with Microsoft Intune
Alright, so today we're going to be talking about the management of bring your own device BYOD for Android devices. There's a lot of information out there for the management of iOS devices and you can do that with pretty much any Apple MDM on the market. We just happen to use Jamf where I work, but you could use anything from Braavos to SimpleMDM to Kanji or JumpCloud. Mosyle is also a great option.
BYO with me in 2025: iOS with User Enrollment in JAMF Pro
It really depends on your company's needs. For example, many companies need to hire 1099 contractors and in such a case they come with their own devices but not the correct security settings or enforcements. Remember BYOD is a security construct. The idea here is that you should be securing the company's sensitive data in all forms. This may involve implementing policies for contractor-owned devices, ensuring that all devices accessing company data meet minimum security standards, and regularly reviewing and updating these standards to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Securing BYOD Email Access: Exploring Strategies in Microsoft 365
In today’s mobile-first world, organizations increasingly rely on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs to empower employees while optimizing costs. However, this flexibility introduces unique challenges, particularly around securing email access. To mitigate risks, we are implementing a comprehensive strategy to block email access on non-company devices by default and ensure only sanctioned apps can access organizational email accounts. This approach will help prevent unauthorized access and data breaches, aligning with our commitment to maintaining the security and integrity of company communications.
How I Conquered the CISSP Exam: 9 Months, Top Resources, and Proven Strategies
Passing the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) exam is no small feat. It’s known for its breadth, depth, and ability to test not just your knowledge but your practical understanding of cybersecurity. After nine months of intense preparation, I’m thrilled to say I’ve joined the ranks of CISSP-certified professionals! Here's a detailed account of my experience, including the resources I used, some tips that helped me along the way, and what I learned from the process itself.
Get more out of scripting than you may expect
Expect is an extension to the Tcl scripting language written by Don Libes. The program automates interactions with programs that expose a text terminal interface. Expect, originally written in 1990 for the Unix platform, has since become available for Microsoft Windows and other systems. Its functionality allows users to interact with these programs through scripted commands, eliminating the need for manual input.
