Apple's new Android app sniffs out AirTag stalkers

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Apple'southward new Android app sniffs out AirTag stalkers

(Image credit: Apple tree)

Congratulations, Android users: You've finally got a way to detect rogue Apple tree AirTags.

Apple this weekend released Tracker Find, an Android app that lets yous scan your full general vicinity for AirTags that may take been separated from their owners. If you do observe i, the app waits 10 minutes, and so lets you lot force the AirTag to make a sound then that y'all can find exactly where it is — and disable it by removing the bombardment.

Apple is doing this considering it turns out at that place's a downside to having tiny devices that cost $25-$30 apiece and can be tracked almost anywhere in the world. AirTags can be used to stalk unsuspecting people or even, equally machine owners in the Toronto area have discovered, to track desirable vehicles back to their owners' driveways for overnight theft. (Even more possible AirTag stalking incidents were reported in belatedly December and early January.)

Tracker Detect doesn't do that much. Different the AirTag software for iPhones, it doesn't detect and alert y'all of the presence of a rogue AirTag all by itself. Instead, you lot have to start a browse manually and give the Tracker Detect app permissions to employ your telephone'south Bluetooth and GPS connections.

(A dissimilar Android app chosen AirGuard, created past German researchers and recommended by women concerned about AirTag-based stalking, does scan automatically.)

(Image credit: Apple/Screenshots past Tom's Guide)

Under ideal circumstances, AirTags stay shut to the iPhones that they're paired with, such equally on a person's keychain or a dog's neckband. Having AirTags separated from their paired iPhones for long periods of fourth dimension is unusual, so Apple tree makes sure that such "lost" AirTags first audibly chirping between 8 and 24 hours after their last contact with their paired iPhones.

(Nonetheless, y'all can at present buy AirTags with their speakers removed so they don't make any sound, and there are YouTube videos showing you lot how to disable the speaker.)

However, some wayward AirTags are not lost at all. Apple can tell when an AirTag mimics the movements of an iPhone belonging to a completely different person. Information technology might accept been slipped into a handbag or a jacket pocket by accident, or deliberately.

It'south a crimson flag for stalking, and since the "lost" AirTag's chirps might not be heard if the AirTag is buried in a bag or in a coat cupboard, the person being tracked might not observe out near it.

To combat this, Apple iPhones running the latest versions of iOS will tell their owners that an unknown AirTag has been traveling with them when the iPhone owners make it home. Those people can apply their iPhones to find the rogue AirTag and disable it.

(In February 2022, Apple tree said it would brand the chirps more than audible, sync them with notifications sent to iPhones and permit iPhone owners use Precision Finding to locate rogue AirTags.)

The fact that no respective Android version of this existed put Android users at a chip of a disadvantage — until at present.

Once more, the Android version of this doesn't showtime scanning automatically. It's really quite primitive compared to the iOS app, and naturally information technology doesn't tell you if it detects AirTags that vest to you and may exist paired to an iPad or iPhone of your own. That would kind of undermine the whole bespeak of AirTags as a selling point for iOS devices.

Nosotros tried out Tracker Detect and found that it seems to work quite well, although nosotros didn't find whatever rogue AirTags in the sparsely populated Tom's Guide offices. (We did come across the longest license agreement we've ever seen for an Android app.)

Then if you have an Android phone and you're worried almost being stalked, or you accept a auto and live in Ontario, install the app and run it every twenty-four hours or two. Information technology tin't hurt, just we're still waiting to meet how constructive the app is.

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has as well been a dishwasher, fry melt, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He'due south been rooting around in the information-security space for more than 15 years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom'southward Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown up in random Tv news spots and even chastened a panel discussion at the CEDIA dwelling house-technology conference. Y'all can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/airtag-detection-android-app

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