Tech
Why Are People Talking About The Apple AirTag?
Apple released the AirTag nearly a year ago, but for whatever reason the small tracker device has failed to achieve cultural relevance on the level of AirPods or even the Apple Cloth. Both industry and mainstream media outlets have largely ignored it, and there is a distinct possibility you didn’t even know this product existed.
That all changed this week. Putting the adage that “there is no such thing as bad publicity” to the test, AirTag content has been flooding the proverbial airwaves thanks to some particularly bad news. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Apple AirTag was invented to affix to small, easily misplaced items like your wallet or car keys. When you can’t find the item, you turn to your iPhone, which displays the location of the AirTag. Perhaps it is nothing revolutionary, but that seems useful enough.
Well, a Sports Illustrated model named Brooks Nader alerted her Instagram followers to another potential use of the tiny tracker—stalking. She claims she was walking around New York City when she got an alert on her own iPhone that there was an unfamiliar device on her person. She stopped and searched herself only to find the AirTag. Not knowing what it was, she turned to social media where users helpfully explained the functionality of the Apple product. She then contacted law enforcement in an attempt to find the culprit.
There are a few takeaways from this series of events. The first, as Apple has noted, is that their product (specifically the “Find My” feature on iPhones) is what allowed the model to know she was being tracked in the first place. Though an Apple offering was responsible for her being put in harm’s way, it was also an Apple offering that was responsible for her salvation. Furthermore the “privacy concerns” this has uncovered with the AirTag are of a different nature than with most tech. With the AirTag, the danger does not come from owning the product and thereby revealing too much personal information; instead it can only come from being a target of someone else’s malfeasance (and device).
With those things in mind, is this necessarily such a PR fiasco for Apple? I am no conspiracy theorist, but I will say that both Brooks Nader and the Apple AirTag have gone from obscurity to household names in the matter of days. What do you think? Does this make you more or less likely to buy one to help you keep track of your belongings? Let us know in the comments!