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AirTags Are Designed to Track Items, Not Kids or Pets

By iPad Pete 4 Comments

Apple made international headlines earlier in 2021 when they finally introduced their AirTags item trackers to the world.

They’d been rumored for several years, but the company’s answer to Tile and similar trackers was finally ready for prime-time.

As is a running theme with Apple products, the AirTags have a heavy emphasis on privacy. Which means that while they’re great for tracking something like your keys or your wallet, they are specifically not intended to track your kids or your pets – a move that has people buzzing in more ways than one.

The Functionality of AirTags: Breaking Things Down

In a recent interview, Apple’s Vice President of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing Kaiann Drance said that the AirTags were a product that “no one else in the industry has ever done before.” This is because even though the AirTags allow you to track certain items effortlessly using your iPhone, they’re still designed with maximum privacy in mind.

Any AirTag will use a network that is end-to-end encrypted, meaning that essentially the only two devices that can read location information are the AirTags themselves and the iPhone that they are connected to.

Third party apps or devices, for example, can’t read this location information on their own.

This means that even if someone else happens to find your AirTag, they wouldn’t be able to pair it with their own iPhone to continue to use it. It would essentially be worthless at that point.

But so long as you’ve properly set up your own AirTag, you can always use the “Find My” app on your iPhone to get its precise location.

Not only that, but even if your AirTag is out of the range of a wireless network, it can still privately communicate with any other iPhone that happens to be in the area to broadcast its exact location. However, that iPhone itself won’t necessarily be able to read the location of the AirTag.

This, of course, has led to Apple making it clear that AirTags are only for finding lost personal items – not kids or pets. Still, it’s a small price to pay for innovation.

AirTags aren’t really designed to track items that are going to move around at random. Since it does not include any GPS chips, cellular, or even Wi-Fi capabilities within the tracker, it needs to be within the range of an iPhone or other Apple device that has the ‌Find My‌ network enabled so its location can be tracked.

Apple has indicated that if you do want to use a product to track your kids while they’re not around, something like an Apple Watch or an iPhone with Family Setup would definitely be a better option.

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  2. Unwanted Tracking Using Apple AirTags Apple is always at the forefront of delivering high-quality yet practical tech products to consumers and one perfect example is AirTags. Officially released last April 30, 2021, AirTags help you...
  3. How Apple’s AirTag Helped Memphis Police Recover a Stolen Car It’s been in the news a lot lately: people are stealing cars like crazy. But one man in Memphis had the perfect solution: Apple’s AirTag. Last week, an AirTag helped...
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Filed Under: Features, Tech News

Comments

  1. Marlene says

    at

    Can you recommend a good tracker for pets?

    Reply
  2. Sandy says

    at

    Thank you for this tip. I have been reading everything I could find on whether or not it could be used if a pet got away. This makes it much clearer.

    Reply
  3. Myrna L. McGee says

    at

    Where do you buy the Air tags?

    Reply
  4. Lee Heid says

    at

    For use with luggage when we travel?

    Reply

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