‘I didn’t want it anywhere near me’: how the Apple AirTag became a gift to stalkers

In March this year, Laura (not her real name) was in her car when a notification showed up on her phone, alerting her that an Apple AirTag had been detected nearby. "I didn't know what it was or what it meant. I felt quite panicky," she says. "I pulled over and still didn't know what I was looking at. My phone was showing a map of where I was with a trail of red dots indicating the route I'd just followed. I think I was in shock. I drove straight to a friend's house and we searched the car."

They emptied the glove compartment, opened the bonnet, checked underneath it and then behind the number plate. "Eventually we found it under the carpet in the back - a tiny gadget the size of a 10-pence piece. I didn't want it anywhere near me."

To Laura, it was obvious how it got there. She had recently separated from her partner, but he had spent the previous day with their young son - and had transferred his child seat from his car to the back seat of Laura's when he had dropped him back.

The AirTag was launched in April last year - a wireless, Bluetooth device designed to keep track of items such as keys, purses, cars or anything else at risk of being lost or stolen. But it has also been a gift to stalkers. "We're finding it's quite an issue," says Violet Alvarez from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which supports stalking victims. "It's so small, it's unnoticeable and very user-friendly. It doesn't require any technical skill whatsoever and it is relatively cheap to buy [from £29]."

AirTags are also widely available. While a mind-boggling range of spyware is available on eBay or Amazon, the Apple brand is ubiquitous, part of everyday life. "I saw AirTags for sale in my local supermarket," says Emma Pickering, senior operations manager for tech abuse at the domestic abuse charity Refuge. "People see them, think about tracking more, and the concept of tracking becomes more established. We're normalising it."

Both Refuge and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust have been contacted by women like Laura, who have received AirTag notifications on their phones. Some went on to find the devices planted in children's backpacks by ex-partners. Others had been slipped into the women's pockets or handbags. In one case, the AirTag couldn't be located at all. The Refuge team talked the caller through how to disable it, but she still doesn't know where it is hidden.

This month at Swansea crown court, Christopher Paul Trotman, 41, pleaded guilty to stalking his ex-girlfriend by gluing an AirTag under her car bumper. Although she had received notifications about the device on her phone, she had no idea what they meant and initially ignored them. It was only when her daughter also began getting notifications that the tag was found.