“Apple’s website states that ‘privacy is a fundamental human right,’ but one of its new products apparently didn’t get the memo.”(1)

Apple has long made privacy a key brand differentiator, with cutting-edge privacy engineering baked into its offering. Yet the PR fallout from privacy risks that surfaced soon after the launch of its AirTags product(2) has exposed a significant privacy blind spot for the tech darling. Designed to track things, AirTags have enabled stalking(3), car theft,(4) and other safety risks. In a decidedly off-brand move, Apple’s AirTags have actually introduced new privacy risks and exacerbated existing social inequalities. What’s more, Apple may have inadvertently normalized and sanitized digital stalking: “It’s not a spy tool marketed as a spy tool, because it’s marketed as an AirTag, and it’s Apple,” observes the CEO of an organization focused on tackling tech-enabled abuse.(5)