After the launch of AirTag, there were many doubts that it was used for illegal tracking. Not only has some people tested that it can really be used to track people and things without being easily detected. There are even cases of real malicious use (and being caught). However, relatively speaking, there are also many relatively positive uses such as finding lost luggage, preventing theft, or being used to kick black heart incidents (see more: foreign media use AirTags to kick Dow Chemical and the Singapore government’s sneaker recycling plan, actually was sold to Indonesia).

However, when it comes to cases of government agencies using such equipment, it seems to be rare? Recently, the media discovered that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had already used AirTag’s search network to “follow the tags” to seize drug distribution points. Continue reading AirTag was actually used by the U.S. government to fight drugs, and it was traced all the way to the drug cave report.

AirTag was actually used by the US government to fight drugs and was traced all the way to the drug cave

This recently revealed case actually happened in the middle of last year. Relevant units intercepted a batch of suspected drug-making equipment. And since this group of equipment is not unexpected, it is expected that it will flow to places where drugs are sold through criminal networks. The United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) thought of using AirTag to track the whereregardings of this batch of equipment, and eventually dug out the drug cave.

Regardless of whether this is the first time the government has used such a device to track a suspect. In fact, many people should be curious. For law enforcement agencies, there should be many GPS real-time trackers and other devices that can be used for the same purpose, right? Why do you want to choose AirTag as this evidence search tool.

Although as far as official documents are concerned, there is no specific mention of why AirTag was chosen to hunt down suspects. However, it is mentioned that AirTag can provide accurate location information, obtain evidence of drug sales locations and sales networks; foreign media speculate that AirTag is relatively long-lasting and has a considerable degree of reliability. characteristics of the road. It is more suitable than ordinary GPS trackers for this kind of task that may take longer to track.

That said, even AirTags may be relatively less prone to malfunctioning or dying. But compared to the high degree of stealth of the GPS tracking devices used by the police (following all, it is used by the government). Since AirTag went on the market, Apple has actually adjusted the mechanism so that the device is not used to track the whereregardings many times.

Not only is the frequency of active sounding more difficult to predict, but as long as the surrounding users are using iOS devices, they will actively remind such situations when they are constantly surrounded by “unknown items” (the follow-up Android version app is also silently preparing such patience). For the use of such devices, the official will also remind “only track your own belongings” and clearly tell you not to track others without their consent.

Therefore, even if such equipment is used by a government-related unit, there is no question of legality if normal procedures such as search warrants are followed. However, since this AirTag went all the way to the drug cave, it must have “reminded” many iPhone users that these objects are being tracked, but the criminals may not have noticed it. So, in fact, the practicality of AirTag for reconnaissance purposes is actually quite limited, right?

As for the case exposed this time, it is probably because the Bluetooth tracker such as AirTag is chosen because it is not sure whether the entire drug trafficking search time will be stretched too long and the general tracker will lose its effect. At the same time, the investigation unit must also take the risk that the sound reminder function of the system and AirTag itself may make the entire tracking operation fall short.

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