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A new bill passing through the Pennsylvania legislature would make using an Apple AirTag to track another person without their consent a felony.
The bill, authored by Republican Senator Wayne Langerholc, was approved by the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
The bill would make the unauthorized use of Apple AirTags and similar items a second-degree felony.
Langerholc said AirTags were created to find lost items, but they have been misused and sometimes used for stalking.
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Someone has an Apple AirTag in San Francisco, March 14, 2022. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“While intended for legal purposes, such as locating commonly misplaced items, some individuals use them for criminal purposes,” Langerholc said. “Whether it’s putting people in their wallets or on their vehicles when they’re not aware of it, current criminal law is vague on the matter. This legislation will change that to ensure that those who misuse this technology be held fully accountable.”
An exception to Langerholc’s bill is parents using AirtTags to track their children.
In February, a Tennessee man was charged after allegedly admitting to putting an Apple AirTag on his ex-wife’s car so he could stalk her, police said.
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An Apple AirTag device during the Spring Loaded virtual product launch in Tiskilwa, Illinois, USA, on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The man, Carlos Atkins, allegedly confessed to his ex-wife that he placed an AirTag in the vehicle and followed her.
An Apple spokesperson previously alerted Fox News Digital to a recent update, stating that it is working with law enforcement to track down AirTags being used for criminal purposes.
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An Apple AirTag device during the Spring Loaded virtual product launch in Tiskilwa, Illinois, USA, on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Apple Inc. with competitors including Tile Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“AirTag is designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or other people’s property, and we condemn in the strongest terms any malicious use of our products. Unwanted tracking has long been a social problem and we have care taken seriously in AirTag’s design, which is why the Find My network was built with privacy in mind, uses end-to-end encryption, and innovated with the first-ever proactive system to alert you to unwanted tracking We hope this starts an industry trend for others to provide these types of proactive alerts in their products as well,” the spokesperson said.
Adam Sabes is a writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter @asabes10.
