How to Identify Unwanted Tracking by a Compact Bluetooth Device

Bluetooth tracking devices like Apple’s AirTag have always been a double-edged sword: They’re a cheap way to track your belongings using a small device with a battery that lasts about a year. Third-party Find My items, as Apple calls them, from other companies come in different shapes and sometimes even longer battery life. You have plenty of options.

These elements rely on crowdsourced locations. Any Apple device or tracker, as well as the latest generations of Beats and Apple headphones and headsets, will have their encrypted identity relayed to any nearby iPhone, iPad or Mac with an internet connection. The connected device adds its location. The entire identifier and location is uploaded to Apple, which cannot decrypt or unscramble it: only someone with a Find My app connected to the iCloud account used when the item was paired can retrieve and decode this data.

But anything you can track so easily can also be used to track you. Apple built anti-stalking features into its Find My network early on. It was rightly criticized for not considering enough scenarios, and it improved some settings in 2021 and others from 2022 to 2024 to notify people when there are unknown objects nearby.

Last year, Apple, Google and several electronics companies that make trackers for Apple’s Find My network and Google’s similarly named Find My Device network agreed to develop a standard to make all trackers more easily identifiable, and released the standard last December.

For more information, read: How to find and block an AirTag detected near you

When you are notified

Currently, you may receive two types of tracking warnings on your iPhone or iPad when a Bluetooth tracking device is near you and you aren’t the owner and the owner hasn’t shared with you. (Find My item sharing was added in iOS 17/iPadOS 17 and macOS 13 Sonoma.) These warnings only occur when the item’s owner isn’t nearby with a paired device. If the owner is nearby, the item communicates with them over Bluetooth.

Here’s when you’ll be alerted to the presence of a tracker:

• A tracker travels with you and it is not yours. For example, imagine a tracker is in a bag you’re carrying or a car you’re driving and you didn’t put it there. Your iPhone or iPad will display an alert after a certain number of minutes (not many) that will include a map showing the path the tracker took.
• A tracker is near you, its owner is not there and it is moved. Let’s say someone puts a tracker on an item you own in the hopes that you’ll take it with you later. This could also include a car or other means of transportation. If the item is moved (even bumped) within 8 to 24 hours of the last time the owner’s device was nearby, the tracker will make a sound. This is all handled by the tracker.

Tracking Trackers

Some people have decided to remove the sound generator from AirTags and other tracking devices to make it easier to locate someone without their knowledge and to make it harder to find them when you receive an alert. This practice is sometimes justified as a way to track your belongings in a way that thieves won’t find out about, except that thieves with a smartphone or iPad will get an alert just like everyone else. No, this is basically turning an AirTag into a tracking technology.

Foundry

Foundry

Foundry

However, industry anti-harassment efforts have already made muting audio much less useful for alerts when an object is moving with you, and generally more useful in providing alerts on Apple and Google devices:

• Starting with Android 6, people with these types of smartphones will also receive similar alerts about AirTags and Find My items traveling with them.
• Since the recent release of iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5, an iPhone and iPad will identify unknown Google Find My Network trackers nearby.

You can also perform a manual scan in Android using Apple’s Tracker Detect for Android or, in Android 6 or later, using Settings > Security and emergency > Unknown Tracker Alertswhere you press Scan now. Oddly enough, Apple doesn’t have this manual feature, but the iOS/iPadOS unknown item notification seems to be quite aggressive, so no manual scan may be necessary.

Take action, find and deactivate a tracker

Once you’re notified that an item is nearby, whether it’s moving or has been moved, you may be able to take action. If you’re still within Bluetooth range, you can play a sound at the item. If it’s an AirTag and you have an iPhone 11 or later (except the iPhone SE 2nd and 3rd generation), you can also use Precision Location to locate it. (AirTags are the only items that include an Ultra-Wideband radio, which can be used for directional searching within about 30 feet or 10 meters.)

Android and Apple devices provide information on how to disable the particular tracking item detected. If you’re close enough and the item supports it, AirTags and some third-party items allow you to tap or approach the item, which will then reveal additional information, such as part of the phone number and the full serial number.

For items that have had their audio ripped off and aren’t AirTags, you may need to find a tracker or even call law enforcement. As Apple points out, “using these products to track people without their consent is a crime in many countries and regions around the world.”

This Mac 911 article is a response to a question submitted by igamesnews reader Cynthia.

Ask Mac 911

We’ve compiled a list of our most frequently asked questions, along with answers and links to topics: read our awesome FAQ to see if your question is answered. If not, we’re always looking for new problems to solve! Email yours to [email protected] , including screenshots if necessary and whether you’d like your full name to be used. Not all questions will be answered; we don’t respond to emails, and we can’t provide direct troubleshooting advice.