California AirTag Lawsuit Widened to Include Dozens More Stalking Cases

[amartinez1660]

Serious question: are they prosecuting the stalkers themselves? All the time I hear Apple this and Apple that (and not tracking device A, or GPS service B or Tile or Amazon things by the way) but NEVER “we have thrown to jail harassers and stalkers A, B and C, so think twice about using tracking device for that punks!”.

I know that they don’t prosecute thieves and that’s why many stores are understandably just closing out nor blatant daylight prostitution (like in San Diego streets), but harassers, stalkers and overall threats of violence/danger neither?

I’m pretty sure if they did, the vast majority would think twice about getting into illegal endeavors…
because see, if people started using fire to burn things around and get away with it… oh wait 🤣…

Heck, what do I know, everything there is all backwards… fine, let’s make a lawsuit and ban fire too, it’s dangerous you know.

 

[amartinez1660]

There might come a point where Apple just say "F*** this. Too much trouble" and pull the product.

From there only maybe, just like Target, Walmart, etc pull themselves out of troubled places

 

[svish]

Definitely expecting Apple to get the lawsuit dismissed.

 

[SanderEvers]

Provided you’ve been altered AND found it. Apple should be a lot more proactive in the detection of tracking AirTags.

(1) you should be notified in minutes or hours of a tag following you, not days.
(2) you should be notified of a tag following you in a matter of meters, not km’s.
(3) you shouldn't have to give up privacy or battery to get notifications. Multitude of privacy and location settings (including recent locations) must be enabled to even be alerted to tags tracking you.
(4) there should be an app or utility to scan for unwanted tags whenever I WANT to do so, rather than waiting for Apple to decide when there’s a tag following me.

These are all the minimums that I hope come out of the suit. Best case the whole AirTag system is shuttered.

1, 2) That is going to give a lot of false positives.
3) How will you be alerted of something in your location if you don't have location services?
4) You can. Just open the Find my app, Items and Identify Found Item.

Why should it be shuttered? I love being able to use it to track my belongings, I already used it once to find my keys after losing them. So yeah, there truly is a need for them (for me at least).

3 and 4 I think are the most important ones. I would ad a 5th that would be able to remotely disable a tag following you. That means it completely stop providing ANY update no matter if you can find it or not. It has been disabled.

I also believe in stalking cases Apple needs to be more proactive in helping police getting the stalkers.

If you can remotely deactivate a tag, would make it really easy for you to steal someone's belongings.

 

[NEPOBABY]

Always remember that original and first tag was James Bond stalking Auric Goldfinger.

 

[PowerButton]

...what? People can—and do, constantly—sue alcohol companies and car manufacturers for negligence and products liability.

Look at context 🤨

 

[Razorpit]

Because you can't win any money from a broke ass company. lol.

You can always win it, collecting it is a different topic. 😉

It’s worse than you think—firearms manufacturers are largely immune from liability for their products under federal law.

As they should be.

Explain to me how Apple is liable for this, but car makers are not liable for making a giant death machine when someone gets run over?

Exactly. And what about the manufactors of alcohol? How dare they allow drinkers to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after they've been consuming their product. 😉

That's a fun comparison. I don't care, in civilised countries people don't run around with firearms all the time. What's your solution for the AirTag problem in America, arm the stalking victims?

I carry all the time. It’s not for when I’m around civilized people, it’s for when an uncivilized person decides to enter the scene. Twice in about a year we saw how fast things change whether you want them to or not.

 

[elfxmilhouse]

Exactly. By the same logic, all manufacture of guns would be illegal for starters. And kitchen knives. Baseball bats. Neck ties. In fact, if you took it to the logical end, nothing much at all would be legal.

The difference is that guns are intended to be weapons and manufactured/marketed as such. Kitchen knives and baseball bats can be used as weapons but the manufacturer is not creating them for that purpose. Apple is not making airtags to be the best stalking tool so the liability should not be on apple.

 

[Razorpit]

The difference is that guns are intended to be weapons and manufactured/marketed as such. Kitchen knives and baseball bats can be used as weapons but the manufacturer is not creating them for that purpose. Apple is not making airtags to be the best stalking tool so the liability should not be on apple.

It is not illegal to defend your life.

 

[Reason077]

I don't think this has much merit. AirTags are hardly the only technology to enable stalking! Isn't it a bit like suing car companies because their cars enable kidnapping? 🤔

 

[Reason077]

Just to give you a different perspective - I am profoundly deaf and have bilateral cochlear implants. When I lost my Airtag, I used it to rely on the sound but it is very, very difficult to pinpoint the location. I had to ask someone for help to locate it.

I have reasonable hearing and I still have trouble finding the thing. I can often hear it but can't find it. Ideally the sound needs to be both louder and play for much longer.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Exactly. And what about the manufactors of alcohol? How dare they allow drinkers to get behind the wheel of a vehicle after they've been consuming their product. 😉

It still amazes me how Big Alcohol gets away with “drink responsibly” and gambling gets away with a little “bet responsibly” when so many similar industries are outright illegal or under much heavier scrutiny.

 

[Lioness~]

Not that I see that Apple are 'guilty' in this or similar cases, but it it doesn’t hurt if they would work on refinements and an evolution of AirTags that would make it more difficult to use in these cases with bad intent. But I'm sure they actually do it already.

 

[1129846]

It still amazes me how Big Alcohol gets away with “drink responsibly” and gambling gets away with a little “bet responsibly” when so many similar industries are outright illegal or under much heavier scrutiny.

I hate the fact that bars are not held more responsible and drunk drivers. Often times they know sonrove is to drunk to drive and still let them serve them or not make sure they are not driving home.

Hold bars more accountable and it would help a lot.

 

[InvertedGoldfish]

There might come a point where Apple just say "F*** this. Too much trouble" and pull the product.

Better yet pull the product from that market and make it known why customers can’t buy it there “your government doesn’t trust you”

I hate the fact that bars are not held more responsible and drunk drivers. Often times they know sonrove is to drunk to drive and still let them serve them or not make sure they are not driving home.

Hold bars more accountable and it would help a lot.

Folks need to be responsible for themselves, this blaming everyone else is childish

 

[1129846]

Better yet pull the product from that market and make it known why customers can’t buy it there “your government doesn’t trust you”




Folks need to be responsible for themselves, this blaming everyone else is childish

None of holding the bar more accountable is letting the person who drove drunk off the hook.

It basically casting a wider net and saying that drunk who killed someone is not the only party to blame in it. I would hold the bar accountable as well. They can also sue the same drunk to recover their losses as well but by threatening the bars as responsible they will shape up.

So in terms of the say the wrongful deaths the bars should pay up as well.

The bars can let the person get drunk as they want but they can also require said person to hand over their keys either to the bar or DD that or make sure at the very least they are taking a Uber home.

It about accountability

 

[stars_fan]

The stupidity coming out of california is astounding.

 

[InvertedGoldfish]

None of holding the bar more accountable is letting the person who drove drunk off the hook.

It basically casting a wider net and saying that drunk who killed someone is not the only party to blame in it. I would hold the bar accountable as well. They can also sue the same drunk to recover their losses as well but by threatening the bars as responsible they will shape up.

So in terms of the say the wrongful deaths the bars should pay up as well.

The bars can let the person get drunk as they want but they can also require said person to hand over their keys either to the bar or DD that or make sure at the very least they are taking a Uber home.

It about accountability

Having some hipster bartender try to take my keys is going to be hilarious

Trying to make everyone at fault for everything sounds like a ambulance chasers wet dream, we really need to reset all our laws by like half a century or so

 

[maratus]

I missed the part where the same c*nts sued BMW because average dumb people couldn't drive, or Benchmade Knives because some junkies in crackhouse motels used them in killing sprees. Oh wait, none of those companies have 3T capitalization and are under constant spotlight by clickbaiting media and scummy lawyers. I get it.

 

[maratus]

And the unmatched brainpower behind the decision to stalk someone using a device that is directly linked to an Apple ID, and requires an Apple device to use which itself gives the manufacturer precise location information, and actively informs the stalking victim about the tag presence (honestly, if you still can't find a tag, you are an idiot)

Instead of, you know, an actually anonymous and autonomous tracker which can't be detected without very specific nearly military grade hardware. Also, don't tell me that every Karen in California is a pro in anti-surveillance and electronic warfare.

 

[elfxmilhouse]

It is not illegal to defend your life.

I agree. I never said it was illegal to use a weapon.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

It is not illegal to defend your life.

If only the majority of times a gun was used on another human being was to defend your life...sadly, that is not the case.

 

[JimmyHook]

The fact they aren’t suing Tile or Samsung for their trackers is telling. It tells me this is just about money and not about the idea behind tracking objects

 

[JimmyHook]

The issue is the auto-sharing that the Airtag does. I don't believe Tile automatically connects to other devices so you can track something without being near it.

I'm not saying I agree with a lawsuit, but we've seen Apple scramble to make updates to increase security with this since it was released.

Two things. One, that isn’t a problem because the ONLY person who can see an AirTags location is the owner, no matter what devices are used in the Find My network to locate it.

Two, yes, Tile does have something like that. Theirs just sucks harder

 

[laptech]

What's the betting that the hardware and software engineers of the air tag voiced their concerns on how easy it could be used for tracking people and thus protocols need to put in place to stop that from happening but someone higher up the chain of command said 'not to worry, that sort of thing wont happen, just carry on with what you are doing'.