Revealed: How stalkers are weaponising Airtags and GPS trackers to harass their victims | EUROtoday

Apple AirTags and GPS monitoring units are being weaponised by stalkers, fuelling a “disturbing” surge in circumstances and leaving victims in worry for his or her lives.

Abusers have been utilizing the coin-sized units, which could be purchased for as little as £35, together with apps designed for parental management, to trace ex-partners at their workplaces and maintain tabs on their location.

Some survivors have been pressured to flee their houses and alter jobs to keep away from detection, whereas others have been positioned in secure homes.

Campaigners warn that the difficulty has skyrocketed because the Covid pandemic and say some police don’t take victims’ considerations critically sufficient. They are additionally seeing an rising variety of victims sectioned due to a collapse of their psychological well being.

It comes as freedom of knowledge information from police forces in England and Wales, obtained by The Independent, discovered there had been a stunning 896 per cent improve within the variety of stalking experiences involving AirTags and GPS trackers, with the circumstances rising from 57 in 2018 to 568 by the top of 2024. In coercive management circumstances, this quantity had risen from 38 to 431 throughout the identical time interval – a 1,034 per cent improve.

But the true determine is prone to be far greater, as solely 18 of 44 forces responded to the request for data, with charities warning that survivors face a “postcode lottery” on responses from frontline officers.

Nicola’s torment started 18 months in the past after she left an abusive, short-lived relationship. Within weeks, it grew to become obvious that her ex-partner knew her each motion, and commenced showing outdoors her office, at gigs, in pubs and parked close by when Nicola left her dwelling to take train.

I’m consistently on alert, I sit with my again to the wall, I’ve modified my routines, and I’m fearful of going out

Nicole

Despite making use of for a non-molestation courtroom order to forestall her abuser from contacting her, and making 35 experiences to the police, Nicola – whose identify has been modified to guard her id – claims the police have didn’t take her considerations critically. She mentioned this led her to aim to take her personal life thrice and self-harm an extra thrice because the stalking escalated in October 2024.

The offending was solely uncovered throughout a visit to a cell phone restore store, when adware programme, Mspy, which is designed for parental management, was discovered on her machine. That meant her ex-partner had entry to all her apps, GPS location and messages.

She mentioned: “It’s absolutely horrendous. I’m constantly on alert, I sit with my back to the wall, I’ve changed my routines, and I’m scared of going out.

“I’ve never been so scared in my life – I’ve changed phones, jobs and I’ll contact venues in advance to let them know I’ve been stalked so that I can sit with a security guard.”

Emma Pickering, head of tech and financial abuse on the home abuse charity Refuge, mentioned monitoring and hidden surveillance had been on the rise “for a really long time” as a result of there are “more options available” as expertise has developed.

She mentioned: “It is disturbing. A lot of new cars have GPS-enabled systems that can be tracked through an app, you can hide Apple AirTags in clothing, Find my iPhone, ring doorbell cameras – one of the biggest challenges is that we don’t know what will develop next.”

The charity first observed a rise within the variety of perpetrators downloading stalkerware to spy on their victims through the Covid lockdown.

“We thought it would peak but it never really went away. We’re busier than ever – there are no cases that we deal with where there isn’t an element of tech-based abuse,” she mentioned.

Apple has applied security options equivalent to alerts when an unknown AirTag has been monitoring an individual. But some victims have discovered units hidden of their automobiles, within the pockets of their coats, and in some circumstances, slipped into their kids’s backpacks by ex-partners.

Asked if expertise firms have been doing sufficient to make sure their merchandise weren’t getting used for nefarious functions, Saskia Garner of the stalking charity the Suzy Lamplugh Trust mentioned: “Not really, no. We would always advocate a safety-by-design approach.

“Once complaints were made, they made adjustments, but that’s already too late. We are also aware of other tracking technologies that are marketed directly to people who want to stalk, such as track your ex sites.

“There is a proliferation of places unashamedly advertising that they assist stalking. They are designed not to be found by stalking victims and solely benefit the perpetrators. There needs to be more regulation around this.”

In Sasha’s case, her ex-partner continued to stalk her after their breakup by analysing geolocation information embedded into her pictures. He was ready so as to add the photographs to his personal digital camera roll, and use the geolocation to seek out the road the place she was residing.

She mentioned: “At that point, a risk assessment was carried out and the situation was escalated. I had panic buttons installed, but eventually the police told me, ‘We can’t keep you safe here.’ Because he had made threats to my life, his own, and others’, I had to be relocated.”

In its 2022 super-complaint to UK police forces, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust raised considerations that police have been failing to recognise the impression of cyber stalking on victims, and mentioned proof was not being sufficiently gathered.

Charlotte Hopper, of The Cyber Helpline, agreed. She mentioned: “There appears to be an apathy towards crime that happens online. There’s also a lack of awareness of the real impact of these trackers and what to do with them – there’s such a feeling in the police that if it happens online, we’re not going to know who it is.”

She described events the place victims had been informed to throw out monitoring units or depart them by the facet of the highway, for granted that this might result in escalated behaviour. Other occasions, officers have taken the machine with out turning it off, main the perpetrator to grasp it’s being held in a police station.

“On a number of occasions, we have seen that a person has disabled a GPS tracker or removed access to their online accounts, and we will see things start to become more physical and the person will show up at the house,” she mentioned.

“When stalking is by its nature obsessive and repetitive, you take that control away and we start to see escalations, unfortunately.”

Deputy Chief Constable Sarah Poolman, the nationwide policing lead for stalking and harassment, mentioned officer coaching has been up to date to incorporate cyber stalking and the way offenders exploit expertise to stalk victims, and steering has been given on learn how to retrieve and protect digital proof to construct a robust case.

But she admitted there was extra work to do, including: “Whilst forces have made progress to broaden understanding of stalking and better assess risk, there is more to do to ensure consistency across the country. Our focus is on making sure forces are using every tool available to them to better protect victims and bring more perpetrators to justice.”

In a earlier assertion on their web site, Apple mentioned: “Apple has been working closely with various safety groups and law enforcement agencies. Through our own evaluations and these discussions, we have identified even more ways we can update AirTag safety warnings and help guard against further unwanted tracking.”

If you’re experiencing emotions of misery, or are struggling to manage, you possibly can converse to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), e mail jo@samaritans.orgor go to the Samaritans web site to seek out particulars of your nearest department.

If you’re primarily based within the USA, and also you or somebody you realize wants psychological well being help proper now, name or textual content 988, or go to 988lifeline.org to entry on-line chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential disaster hotline that’s accessible to everybody 24 hours a day, seven days per week. If you’re overseas, you possibly can go to www.befrienders.org to discover a helpline close to you