A new report from MacRumors says Apple is now dealing with more than 30 lawsuits from plaintiffs who claim they were tracked with an AirTag. The cases argue that the product was brought to market even though the company understood it could be misused by dangerous people for tracking, coercion, control, or other forms of harm aimed at innocent victims.
According to the lawsuits, Apple did not build strong enough tracking safety protections when it launched AirTag in 2021. The filings say the company received more than 40,000 tracking reports between April 2021 and April 2024. Internal material cited in the original case also reportedly shows Apple knew its existing measures could act as a deterrent but were not enough to stop bad actors from abusing the device.
AirTag works through the Find My network, which lets nearby Apple devices help relay a tag’s location back to its owner. Apple has already added several anti-tracking features, including cross-platform alerts, so people can be warned when an unknown AirTag may be following them. Even so, the plaintiffs say those safeguards still fall short in real-world situations.
One issue highlighted in the complaint is timing. The lawsuits say there can be a delay of roughly four to eight hours between the start of tracking and the moment a user receives a warning. They also point out that early AirTag units originally needed about 72 hours before they would notify a nearby victim, which critics argue left too much room for misuse.
Another concern is that the device speaker can be removed. The report says modified silent AirTags have even been sold on marketplaces such as eBay, making them much harder to notice during unwanted tracking cases. Taken together, the lawsuits are essentially arguing that Apple knew about the risk profile of AirTag and still didn’t do enough on the tracking safety front before and after launch.
