Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Brooks Nader is the latest to warn people that Appel AirTags can be used to stalk people. They are meant to help people keep track of things they might lose, but they are so small that someone with nefarious ideas can easily slip one into someone else’s belongings to stalk them. That’s exactly what Nader claims happened to her in New York City earlier this month.
In a series of Instagram Story posts on Jan. 6, Nader, 25, said a mysterious stalker slipped an Apple AirTag into her belongings and used it to track her location. While she was at a bar in Tribeca to meet her friends, she didn’t receive any notifications. However, as she was walking home alone, she suddenly got a notification she was being tracked by someone “for a while,” reports PEOPLE. She “freaked out,” but her phone died.
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According to Good Morning America, one of the notifications she received read, “unknown accessory detected.” The notifications told Nader the item “has been moving with you for a while” and its owner could “see its location.” Before this experience, Nader said she never knew about Apple AirTags and shared her story as a warning to other women.
“So I’m kind of just trying to raise awareness and tell all my ladies out there to watch your belongings, look out for the notification,” she said. “The only silver lining is that I actually got notified that someone was tracking me. It was the scariest moment ever. I just want people to be aware that this exists.”
Nader also shared her experience with Inside Edition. She called it “the scariest, scariest moment ever” for her. On Jan. 12, she took to Instagram to thank the media for continuing to share her story. “Stay vigilant, don’t walk home alone, be aware of your surroundings and look out for each other, love you all,” she wrote.
The Apple AirTag is a small device that is about the size of a button that could be paired with Apple’s Find My App feature. Although it is intended to help users find things they might lose, there have been multiple reports across the country of them being used for stalking or aiding car theft. In a statement to PEOPLE, Apple said the company takes “customer safety very seriously and is committed to AirTag’s privacy and security.”
“AirTag is designed with a set of proactive features to discourage unwanted tracking – a first in the industry – that both inform users if an unknown AirTag might be with them, and deter bad actors from using an AirTag for nefarious purposes,” the Apple spokesperson said. “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.”
