That Apple AirTag that’s hanging on your keychain is celebrating its 5th birthday on today, April 30. Apple launched the original AirTag on April 30, 2021, alongside the M1 iMac, and an updated iPad Pro,and new Apple TV 4K. The coin-shaped tracking tag sported a polished stainless steel back, IP67 water resistance, and a U1 Ultra Wideband chip inside.
The AirTag was, and still is, available for $29 per tag or $99 for a four-pack of tags, with free engraving also available.
The AirTag quickly became popular, while also becoming a target of controversy by police and privacy advocates, as while the tracking tag definitely assisted as intended, helping to find lost or stolen items, it was also used by unsavory types to track unwitting victims.
On the positive side, a Texas man was able to tracks the bad actors that were robbing his uncle’s gravesite, stealing a $600 bronze memorial vase marking the grave. Clute, Texas resident Tony Velazquez said he had secreted an AirTag inside one of the replacement vases, to be able to track it if the thieves repeated the theft. Wisely, Velazquez informed police instead of trying to capture the crooks on his own, and the cops were able to recover his uncle’s vase, as well as more than 100 other vases.
On the flipside, an Indianapolis, IN woman tracked her boyfriend to a local nightclub, where she observed him with another woman. 26-year-old Smith was hit multiple times by a car outside Tilly’s Pub in Indianapolis on Friday. Emergency services discovered him under the vehicle. Smith was pronounced dead by medics on the scene, with the coroner’s office determining the car was the cause of death.
And it was almost a certainty that there would be lawsuits related to the AirTag. A class-action lawsuit filed in California in December 2022, alleging that, partly due to Apple’s negligence, AirTags had become “one of the most dangerous and frightening technologies employed by stalkers” because they can be easily, cheaply, and covertly used to determine “real-time location information to track victims.”
Apple and Google later cooperated to allow users on the Android platform to receive automatic unwanted tracking alerts, just like on the iPhone.
However, those privacy-tracking concerns certainly haven’t hurt sales of the, as Apple says the AirTag is its best-selling item tracking accessory.
