Apple is sued by 2 women alleging they were stalked using AirTags
Two women have sued Apple, alleging that their previous partners used the tech company's AirTag products to stalk and track them.
The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed on Dec. 5 in the Northern District Court of California, argues that Apple has not done enough to ensure safeguards against stalkers and other people using the quarter-size, Bluetooth-enabled devices to track people.
“With a price point of just $29, it has become the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers,” the lawsuit states.
One of the plaintiffs, identified as Lauren Hughes, alleges her ex-boyfriend purchased AirTags to stalk her after their relationship of three months ended. After her alleged stalker left notes and other objects at her residence, Hughes temporarily moved to a hotel, according to the lawsuit.
Once she got to the hotel, she received a notification that an unknown AirTag was tracking her, the lawsuit states. She found the AirTag in the rear wheel well of her car, and when she took the device to a nearby Apple store, employees could not tell her how long it had been attached to her vehicle, according to the suit.
"Ms. Hughes continues to fear for her safety — at minimum, her stalker has evidenced a commitment to continuing to use AirTags to track, harass, and threaten her, and continues to use AirTags to find her location," the lawsuit states.
The other plaintiff, called Jane Doe from Kings County, New York, alleges her ex-husband left an AirTag in their child's backpack after she filed for divorce. She attempted to disable the tracker but later found another one in the backpack.
The two women are suing for unspecified monetary damages.
When reached for comment, Apple directed TODAY.com to a statement released on Feb. 10, in which the company said it was working with law enforcement and making updates to AirTags and the Find My Network.
"AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products," Apple said in part of its statement. "Unwanted tracking has long been a societal problem, and we took this concern seriously in the design of AirTag."
Apple rolled out AirTags in April 2021, marketing the devices as a way to track the location of the owners' personal objects — anything from luggage to pets. But within days of the product's launch, multiple media reports, along with tech and domestic violence groups, spoke out about the potential to abuse AirTags.
Brooks Nader, a Sports Illustrated model with more than 1 million followers on Instagram, spoke out in January about her own experience of someone trying to track her location with an AirTag while going out with friends to bars in New York City.
"Once I was already on my walk home, halfway home, I got the notification that was like 'Someone’s tracking you and has been for a while,'" she said on Instagram at the time. "So I freaked out, obviously and then, of course my phone died."
Nader said she managed to make it home safely and looked into what the notification meant. She later revealed she reported it to the police, but there wasn't much they could do about it.
"It turns out it was an AirTag, which is a tiny little white circular thing that Apple makes and it’s used for horrible, horrible things," Nader said.
Nader said she was speaking about her experience to help raise awareness of the issue for other women.
"I’m kind of just trying to raise awareness, tell all the ladies out there to watch your belongings... Just check your belongings, check your surroundings. It was the scariest, scariest moment ever and I just want everyone to be aware that this exists," she said.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
