Apple's AirTag has a speaker on it that plays a sound when the device is away from its owner. A company called Elevation Lab tried to subvert that, but quickly learned that maybe that isn't a great idea. Apple learned the same lesson the hard way after launching the original AirTag, which stalkers quickly realized could be used to track their victims.
According to MacRumors, Elevation Lab sent out emails to users earlier this week alerting them to the fact that its "AirTag Silencer" product had been pulled from sale. The email was also posted on Elevation Lab's website in the form of an apology.
The device gave owners a simple way to disable the speaker in every AirTag. In case you don't use AirTags, those speakers are meant to emit a noise to help users find lost items, but that sound is also utilized as an anti-stalking measure. If you have an unwanted AirTag moving with you and someone is tracking it, at least theoretically, it should make a noise to alert you to that fact.
In recent years, Apple introduced a variety of anti-stalking tools for AirTags and even worked with Google to ensure people with Android devices are alerted if they're being tracked by an AirTag.
According to Elevation Lab, the device was meant for AirTags that live on bicycles and was never meant to facilitate stalking or anything of the sort.
"We have always made products we want for ourselves, and this was no different - we wanted it for AirTags on our bikes," the Elevation Lab post said. "In retrospect though, this also has the side effect of aiding someone with bad intentions to track someone that wouldn’t get phone notifications."
This came after a brief backlash that included sites like MacRumors refusing to cover the launch of the product earlier this month, and a blog post by tech journalist Glenn Fleishman that called the product "appalling."
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