(OPINION) A family on vacation in Orlando, Florida, was tracked last week without their permission. Jennifer Gaston of Tennessee said she and her family were riding the monorail at Walt Disney World on their way out of the theme park when her daughter Madison received a notification on her iPhone, alerting her that someone had tracked everywhere she went from 7:09 p.m. to 11:33 p.m. on the day of their visit, according to FaithWire.
Thankfully, the attempt at tracking Madison after she left the park was unsuccessful. “This story could have ended way differently,” said Jennifer Gaston. “I’m praising God we have the outcome we have, but it’s because she was diligent and aware of what to do.”
“We were terrified, we were confused, hurt, and scared,” said Jennifer Gaston. “She literally watched it follow us from the tram all the way back to our vehicle.”
Her daughter said it showed that the device had been tracking them for several hours as they were walking through the theme park. When they got to their car, they quickly looked for it and when they didn’t find it, they jumped inside the car, locked the doors, drove away and called the police. Madison continued to look at the devices’ location on her phone.
AirTags are small, coin-sized Apple devices that people put on things like their keys, so if you lose them you can track them down using your phone. However, some criminals use the devices to follow people.
In fact, in response to growing concerns about how others have misused the devices, some privacy groups have called on the tech giant to permanently pull the gadgets from store shelves.
“Some people who have ill will towards others are using it to potentially stalk people, follow people, tag vehicles, high luxury vehicles, that they might want to come back and steal,” said David Benson a security expert. “Even if it’s not at epidemic proportions, it’s happening enough where it’s concerning.”
