Mike Peterson
Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Brooks Nader was tracked for five hours while bar hopping on Wednesday night after a stranger apparently slipped an Apple AirTag into her coat pocket.
Nader, 26, detailed the incident in an Instagram post on Thursday. Nader said that she left her coat on the back of a chair, which is when someone could have placed the AirTag in her pocket. After that, she says the person stalked her for five hours as she went bar-hopping in New York City.
She was only alerted to the stalking when a notification appeared on her iPhone that said an unknown accessory was moving with her. She discovered the AirTag in her coat after she got home.
"It was the scariest, scariest moment ever," she said in the Instagram post. "And I just want everyone to be aware of that this exists."
Prior to the stalking, Nader said that she had no idea that AirTags even existed. Now, she is using her large social media following to raise awareness of the potential safety risks.
There have been a number of reports of AirTags being used to stalk people and facilitate theft after the accessory's release in April 2021.
Apple says the devices are designed to prevent stalking, however.
AirTags feature anti-stalking mechanisms such as the alert that notified Nader. They also play a beeping sound after they've been out of range of the owner's iPhone. Those are features currently missing from other tracking devices, such as those made by Tile.
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57 Comments
Don't use Airtags to stalk someone with an iPhone. Problem solved.
„Now, she is using her large social media following to raise awareness of the potential safety risks.“
Everything has its risks. The anti-stalk-warning worked precisely as intended. If she informs people, fine enough. If she boasts about her social media follower-power I’m already rolling my eyes – this is not an argument. So please, continue to inform but also be informed and think about what you post and do. :)
JFC! Now even more assholes will start blaming Apple for stalkers when they've been using Tile and other devices for well over a decade without their smartphone alerting them. Apple should've just not included a feature to let people know and this focus wouldn't be coming down on them. Kill the messenger, indeed.
To Nader's credit she did say that the silver lining was that Apple informed her that a rogue AirTag was tracking her and she did mention Tile in her comment as also being capable of clandestine tracking in this manner. Unfortunately even AI didn't see fit to mention that aspect of her balanced comment on Instagram.
It's time we had sensible AirTags control. Background checks, waiting periods, mental health interviews, government registry, limited battery capacity, the works. If it stops just one stalking...
Or maybe the problem is the person misusing it, but who can truly say?
If the stalker had only been smart enough to use a GPS tracker instead!