Stalker planted Apple tracking device in my pocket in a bar
A SWIMSUIT model was stalked for five hours after a stranger put a tracking device made by Apple into her pocket while she was in a bar.
Brooks Nader, an American model for Sports Illustrated, said discovering the AirTag had been planted in her coat was the ‘scariest moment’ of her life.
She found it after she got home from a bar in New York when her phone sent her a chilling notification which read: ‘Unknown accessory detected.’
The notification added: ‘This item has been moving with you for a while. The owner can see its location.’
AirTags are button-sized tracking devices which can be bought for £29. They are designed to attach to personal objects such as keys, bags or bikes, and can be tracked using an app.
But the trackers, along with similar devices made by other companies, have been criticised by privacy groups and domestic rights campaigners after several cases of stalking and other sinister uses.
Miss Nader, 25, wrote to Apple on Instagram and asked: ‘Did you take into consideration the danger and potentially fatal consequences this device has?’
She said: ‘I went to the bathroom and left my coat on the chair and that’s when I think someone slipped it in. They then followed me for five hours all the way home.
‘If this does happen to you and you find an AirTag, immediately call the police and Apple to track the serial number back to the perpetrator.’ The model did not say if she had contacted police.
The small discs, launched in April last year, use Bluetooth technology to emit a signal that can be detected by devices running Apple’s Find My app feature.
AirTags were a popular stocking filler at Christmas for tech-savvy consumers who have attached them to their keys and wallets to make sure they don’t lose them.
A spokesman for civil liberties group Big Brother Watch said: ‘These Air Tags have a huge potential to be used for stalking, surveillance, domestic abuse and theft. While the surveillance economy is booming and big tech companies laud these tracking tools as lifestyle-enhancing, they too often overlook the major privacy and safety risks.’
Apple said: ‘We take customer safety very seriously and are committed to AirTag’s privacy and security. AirTag is designed with a set of proactive features to discourage unwanted tracking – a first in the industry.’
‘Potentially fatal consequences’