CASES of hi-tech stalking using tiny tracking devices and smartphones have risen tenfold in just a year – prompting experts to warn the scale of the problem is “terrifying”.
The Bluetooth-connected gadgets, which include unbranded versions for as little as £7 as well as Apple’s £35 AirTag, were devised to help people keep track of keys, luggage or pets.
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But the tiny disc-shaped trackers, just over an inch in diameter, are increasingly being used by stalkers and domestic abusers to keep tabs on victims — often lone women.
And celebrities are increasingly being targeted.
In March, Love Island contestant Montana Brown found an AirTag in her luggage.
On landing in Los Angeles, the 27-year-old from Herts, received an iPhone notification informing her the gadget was “on her person”.
She found it in the bottom of her handbag, and said: “That was really alarming because I had no idea that somebody was even that close to me to be able to put it into my bag.
“I kind of panicked and just flushed it down the toilet.”
Montana claims her iPhone notification said the AirTag started being read shortly before she boarded her flight.
She added: “That’s the first time I’ve been on my own, really, and felt very unsafe and I just wanted to get out of the airport as quickly as possible.
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“It was a shocking experience because you go down a rabbit hole of, ‘What would they have done next? What would they have tracked my location for?’”
Wave of fear
Experts are seeing people from all walks of life being targeted.
Laura Lyons set up private investigation agency Are They Safe in 2014 after she was the victim of stalking. She is now “inundated” with calls relating to AirTags.
She added: “At the start of 2022, we were getting two or three calls a month about this tagging. Now it’s over ten times that, sometimes close to 40 calls a month.
“GPS tagging technology has been available for years. But since Apple launched its branded product a couple of years ago it’s really opened the floodgates for them to be used for the wrong reasons.
“They are a stalker’s dream because the victims don’t have to be physically near the stalker. I’m getting calls from women who are given a coat or handbag as a present by a partner then they find an AirTag secretly sewn into it.”
Computer coder Sarah Burton had no idea she was being tracked when she went on holiday last May.
It was only when checking into her Lanzarote hotel room that she received a worrying alert on her phone saying there was an unknown accessory nearby — and she found an Apple AirTag in her carry-on bag.
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Sarah, 40, from Fulham, West London, said: “As soon as I saw the tag I felt a wave of fear rush over me.
“I was alone, as I’d jetted out two days before my friends. I wanted to throw up. I was gripped with panic.
“I went to reception and explained what had happened and asked for another room and for them to register me under a different name.
“For the rest of the trip I was constantly looking over my shoulder.”
TikTok has been flooded with reports of women such as Sarah finding the gadgets hidden in cars, handbags and coat pockets.
Laura said: “They alert a stalker to when you’re most vulnerable, if you’re walking home alone at night, for in- stance. It’s terrifying. We regularly get calls from people saying they’re concerned they’re being stalked.
“We do a bug-sweep of their home and find several hidden AirTags — in shoes, under mats in cars, everywhere.
“You can buy these things as easily as you would a pint of milk, no questions asked. It’s madness.”
Emma Pickering, of domestic violence charity Refuge, has seen a 250 per cent year-on-year rise in the misuse of tech for stalking — and domestic abuse.
She said: “Since 2017 the rise in the misuse of technology has grown exponentially, with AirTags accelerating that trend faster than anyone could have predicted.
“Technology being used in this way has opened a Pandora’s box — we’re seeing surveillance tech used in doorbells, smart TVs, Amazon Alexas — even children’s toys.
“In the past, these were seen as hard to operate. Now they’re used by anyone with minimal tech know-how and many people still don’t know how to check if they’re being tracked or to disable them.”
Trackers use Bluetooth to ping their last known location to any device registered to it.
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The list of cases being brought to court is growing. Last April, a 52-year-old man from Basingstoke, Hants, was accused of installing two listening devices in plug sockets at a woman’s home.
In 2022, a 41-year-old Pembrokeshire man admitted tracking his wife by placing a device in her car.
A 35-year-old Lancashire man pleaded guilty to gaining access to a woman’s mobile phone and apps.
Child’s backpack
Four other men have separately appeared before magistrates in the past six months charged with harassment after allegedly using AirTags to stalk women.
Several female students at St Andrew’s University in Fife last year reported AirTags being used to track their locations.
One, a 19-year-old history student, believed she was followed for several hours on a night out after an AirTag was put in her coat pocket.
In December, two women in the US launched a class-action lawsuit — representing multiple plaintiffs — against Apple, claiming the AirTag devices helped their former partners to track them down.
Lauren Hughes, of Texas, said her ex-boyfriend learned where she had moved to escape him after placing an AirTag in her car’s wheel arch.
In January 2022, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Brooks Nader was stalked for five hours after an Apple AirTag was slipped into her coat pocket in a New York bar.
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The 26-year-old only found out due to a notification on her phone that told her an unknown item had been “moving with her” and that “the owner could see its location”.
Another victim said her estranged husband had placed a device in her child’s backpack.
A 38-year-old marketing executive, who wants to remain anonymous, says she was stalked using AirTags last spring.
She had met the man via the dating app Bumble, but a month later decided she wanted to end it.
She said: “He then started calling me, asking if we could get back together, but giving information on where I’d been, who I’d been with. Suddenly alarm bells were ringing.
“He started quoting private conversations I’d had with my friends and specific places I’d been.”
She called the police, who searched him and his property. She added: “The police found 30 AirTags in his car, as well as a listening device under my sofa. But even then, I was told he couldn’t be charged. I’ve since found out he did the same to another woman. And because these vile men know they can get away with it, there is no reason for them to stop.”
Last year, in response to safety concerns, Apple made the AirTag alert noise louder, to help people find suspicious devices more easily.
It also reduced the timeframe in which people will be alerted to an unknown AirTag. Before February 2022, the device took eight to 24 hours to send out alerts.
Now Apple and Google say they are jointly working on an industry standard to better control use of the devices. Experts say unregulated use of trackers is worrying.
Tallulah Belassie-Page, from The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which supports stalking victims, said: “Convictions for stalking after arrests are still less than five per cent and that hasn’t changed despite the massive rise in stalking cases resulting from tracking devices.
“We’re seeing the very real and horrific results of this new tech- enabled stalking, but the police seem way behind the curve.
“The onus shouldn’t be on smartphone users to have to fend for themselves against predators. Tech giants like Apple are making millions from these gadgets, but it’s the woman — or man — on the street who’s bearing the real cost.”
