On a Sunday night in September, a strange notification appeared on her phone that said "AirTag Detected Near You."
An AirTag is a 1.26-inch disc with location- tracking capabilities that Apple started selling earlier this year as a way to keep track of your stuff. Ms. Estrada and her friends did not own one. The notification on her phone said the AirTag had been spotted. A map of the AirTag's history showed the zigzag path Ms. Estrada had traveled.
She said she felt violated. I felt like someone was following me. What was their intent to me? It was frightening.
Ms. Estrada is not the only one. In the last few months, people have posted on various websites about finding AirTags on their cars and belongings. Privacy groups predicted when Apple introduced the devices in April that they would be used to a new form of stalking.
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The New York Times reports that the AirTag that had been tracking her for four hours was found by the woman.
The New York Times spoke with seven women who believe they were tracked with AirTags, including a 17-year-old whose mother placed one on her car to stay apprised of her whereabouts.
The threat posed by AirTags has prompted some authorities to take a closer look. The AirTag was found on a car bumper, and the police warned the community of the tracking potential of the devices. The AirTag may be charged after Apple complied with a subpoena for information.
The police department in Canada said that it had investigated five incidents of thieves placing AirTags on high-end vehicles so they could steal them.
Researchers believe that AirTags, which are equipped with technology, could show a more widespread problem of tech-enabled tracking. They emit a signal that can be detected by Apple devices. The AirTag has last been seen. Apple added features to prevent abuse, including notifications like the one Ms. Estrada received, and automatic beeping. A spokeswoman forTile said that the company plans to release a feature to prevent the tracking of people next year.
Eva Galperin, a cybersecurity director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that AirTags present a "uniquely harmful" threat because they allow for more exact monitoring of people's movements.
Ms. Galperin said that Apple turned every device into a part of the network that AirTags use to report the location of an AirTag. The network that Apple has access to is larger and more powerful than those used by other trackers. It is more dangerous for stalking.
The tiny $29 AirTags have proved popular, selling out consistently since their introduction.
An Apple spokesman said in a statement that the company takes customer safety very seriously and is committed to AirTag's privacy and security. He said that the small devices have features that inform users if an unknown AirTag is with them and that deter bad actors from using an AirTag.
If users ever feel their safety is at risk, they are encouraged to contact local law enforcement who can work with Apple to provide any available information about the unknown AirTag.
Police could ask Apple for information about the owner of the AirTag, which could lead to an arrest. The people who spoke with The Times were unable to find the AirTags they were notified of, and they said the police don't always take reports of the notifications seriously.
After a Friday night out with her boyfriend, a graduate music student in New Orleans, she was notified by her phone that an accessory had been detected near her and was moving with her to her home.
She called the police but never found the AirTag. An Apple representative told her that her other devices could set off the alert. A dozen people commented on Ms. Torres video when she posted it on the video sharing website. The number of reports makes me think that there is a glitch that is causing all these people to experience this. I hope they are not being followed.
While in Los Angeles, Ms. Estrada found a quarter-sized tracker in a space behind her car's license plate. She posted a video of her experience on TikTok.
The technology can be used for good and bad purposes, but Apple probably released this product with the intent to do good.
Ms. Estrada was told by a Los Angeles police dispatch that she would have to bring her device to the station in the morning if she wanted to file a report. After taking several photos, she didn't want to wait and dispose of it.
The Los Angeles police have not heard of any cases in which an AirTag has been used to track a person or a vehicle. She said that an Apple employee contacted her after she posted her video. The employee was able to connect the AirTag to the woman in Central Los Angeles.
A woman was notified by her phone that she was being followed after leaving her gym. She called the police when she got home.
The woman was told that a report could only be filed if someone showed up at her home and that Apple notifications were not enough proof that she was being followed. She got in touch with an Apple customer service representative who was able to get the device disconnected from Ms. Clough. The device was not found.
She hadn't returned to her gym since and she was terrified and frustrated that there was nothing she could do about it. I stayed home for a good week.
AirTags and other products that are connected to Apple's location- tracking network, called "Find My,"trigger alert to unknown iPhones they travel with. The AirTag devices are designed to discourage unwanted tracking and will play a sound after a certain amount of time, according to the product page on Apple.
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The AirTag was behind Ms. Estrada's license plate.
After concerns about stalking were raised, Apple pushed an update to AirTags to make it harder for people to get away from their connected devices for a day. Ms. Galperin said that they don't beep very loudly.
A person who doesn't own an Apple device might have a harder time detecting an AirTag. AirTags aren't compatible with phones. You have to be careful to download and use the Apple app that can Scan for AirTags.
Apple wouldn't say if it was working on technology that would allow its phones to detect its trackers.
People who said they were tracked have called Apple's safeguards insufficient. Ms. Estrada said that she was notified four hours after her phone first noticed the device. Others said it took days before they were made aware of the AirTag. Depending on the operating system and location settings, the timing of the alert can vary.
The devices have caused confusion for people who weren't necessarily being tracked. Mary Ford, a 17-year-old high school student from Cary, N.C., received a notification in late October that she was being tracked by an unknown AirTag after driving to an appointment. She panicked as she searched.
Ms. Ford only realized it was not a threat when her mother told her she had put the tracker in the vehicle.
Wendy Ford said she was nervous about Mary being out and not being able to find her. She said that she probably would have told her daughter about the AirTag if she had known.
After renting a car from Turo in Los Angeles, she received a notification about an AirTag near her on a Saturday night with her girlfriends.
She took the vehicle to her friend's parking garage where she searched the outside of the car for an hour before she found out the device was inside. Ms. Maramba was driving the car for two days.
Turo does not have control over the technology used on the cars they rent out, according to a statement from a company spokesman.
Ms. Maramba said that imagine finding out via a notification that you are being tracked. You can't do anything about it.
