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2 women sue Apple after their exes allegedly used AirTags to stalk them

Apple Event
Posted at 1:26 PM, Dec 07, 2022
and last updated 2022-12-07 15:26:34-05

Apple is being sued by two women who alleged that their exes used the company's AirTags to track them.

Multiple news outlets reported that the class-action lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of one woman from New York and another in Texas.

The two women alleged in court documents that they are suing the tech company for those “who have been and who are at risk of stalking via this dangerous product,” CNN and The Washington Post reported.

The woman in Texas, identified as Lauren Hughes, alleged in the lawsuit that following her breakup, she was stalked online and found an AirTag on her car, The Post and USA Today reported.

The woman in New York, only identified as "Jane Doe," alleged in the suit that after "a contentious divorce," she located an AirTag in her child's backpack, the news outlets reported. She said she got rid of it but then found another one shortly thereafter, according to the lawsuit, the news outlets reported.

The AirTags, which Apple launched in 2021, is a device that helps people locate misplaced items such as keys or a wallet by using a Bluetooth signal to anonymously connect to nearby devices within Apple's Find My network that you can then find on a map via the Find My app, according to the company's website.

On the company's website, Apple says the device "is designed to discourage unwanted tracking."

"If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s traveling with you and send you an alert. After a while, if you still haven’t found it, the AirTag will start playing a sound to let you know it’s there," according to the description of the device on the company's website.

But the women claim in the suit that Apple's safeguards "are woefully inadequate, and do little, if anything, to promptly warn individuals if they are being tracked," The New York Times and USA Today reported.

This isn't the first time the devices have allegedly been used to track someone.

According to court documents, in June, a woman in Indiana used an AirTag to find her boyfriend and then killed him after she suspected that he was cheating on her, The Indianapolis Star and The Washington Post reported.