Report: Women across the country are being stalked using Apple tracking devices



Apple AirTags were designed to help users keep track of important but easy-to-lose possessions such as wallets, purses, and keys. But according to a new report from Vice, nefarious actors across the country are using the inexpensive tracking devices to stalk and harass women.

What are the details?

The news outlet reported this week that it obtained 150 reports from eight of the country's largest police departments within the last eight months that mentioned AirTags. Of the 150 reports, 50 of them reportedly involved women who alerted police after they started getting notifications that they were being tracked by an AirTag they didn't own.

According to Vice, 25 of those reports identified "a man in their lives — ex-partners, husbands, bosses — who they strongly suspected planted the AirTags on their cars in order to follow and harass them."

AirTags, unveiled by Apple about a year ago, are Bluetooth-enabled, battery-operated devices roughly the size of a half-dollar coin that can be attached to items and tracked with connected Apple devices. They work by pinging nearby Bluetooth-connected Apple devices using the "Find My" app, then showing the tracked objects on a map.

In its report, Vice kept the details of the police records vague in order to protect the victims' identities but shared overviews of several of the incidents.

In one case, a woman called the police after a man who had been harassing her placed an AirTag in her car and threatened to make her life hell. In another case, a woman reported to police that her ex had slashed her car's tires and left an AirTag in the vehicle to monitor her whereabouts. In yet another case, a woman reported that she started noticing something beeping inside her vehicle every time she left her house. Later, when she confronted an ex of hers, he admitted to placing an AirTag in her car to see if she was "cheating."

Other examples included revelations of exes or controlling partners mysteriously showing up at the same places as the women. In many instances, the women reportedly feared they would be the victims of physical violence.

Introducing AirTag | Couch | Apple www.youtube.com

What if you don't have an iPhone?

On its product description page for AirTags, Apple states that the devices are "designed to discourage unwanted tracking."

"If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s traveling with you and send you an alert," the tech giant explains. "After a while, if you still haven’t found it, the AirTag will start playing a sound to let you know it’s there."

In an ironic effort to enhance privacy, Apple notes that "only you can see where your AirTag is ... not even Apple knows the location of your AirTag or the identity of the device that helps find it."

But what about people who don't own an iPhone or other Apple device? For them, the danger is patently clear. No notifications about a nearby AirTag would ever be sent, and therefore they would never know that they are being tracked.

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Vice that the feature amounts to an obvious oversight by Apple — and a dangerous one at that.

"That was a completely ridiculous way to launch a new device, without having taken into account its use in a domestic violence situation," she said, adding, "But specifically, the blind spot that Apple had was people who live outside of the Apple ecosystem."

"Stalking and stalkerware existed before AirTags, but Apple made it cheaper and easier than ever for abusers and attackers to track their targets," added Albert Fox Cahn, executive director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.

How has Apple responded?

When reached by Vice regarding the police reports, an Apple representative directed the outlet to a February company blog post, which outlined recent security updates.

In the post, Apple said incidents of AirTag misuse are "rare" but acknowledged that "each instance is one too many." It also claimed that it is working with safety groups and law enforcement to come up with ways to crack down on criminal misuse.

One idea has involved handing over the serial ID number of alleged perpetrators in certain instances.

"Every AirTag has a unique serial number, and paired AirTags are associated with an Apple ID. Apple can provide the paired account details in response to a subpoena or valid request from law enforcement," Apple said.

But critics warn by that time, it may already be too late for victims.

Good Samaritan nurse jumps into action to save wounded police officer following shooting attack: 'I was meant to be there'



An extraordinarily brave traveling nurse leapt into immediate action Thursday night when she witnessed an attack on what turned out to be an off-duty detective.

What are the details?

Traveling nurse Lindsey Adams told WTMJ-TV that she arrived at a Milwaukee-area Shake Shack to pick up her food when she saw two people struggling inside the restaurant.

Suddenly, the nurse said, she heard a gunshot, which set off panic both inside and outside the store.

"I hear a gunshot, everybody is screaming, jumping over the counters in Shake Shack, I duck down behind the car," Adams recalled.

More gunshots rang out before she saw a suspect firing into the air as he ran outside and took off in a waiting car.

“As he’s running, just firing a whole bunch of shots in the air, out into the public, didn’t really care where they are going,” she said.

Adams said she knew she had to rush in to help the officer — who witnesses say tried to stop the suspect from mugging a woman inside the restaurant — and that it was God's plan that put her in that very moment to save his life.

“I knew I had to do something, he’s just laying there and I could tell he’s bleeding, he’s got wounds, he’s suffering,” she said.

Adams told WITI-TV that she was "completely frightened [and] completely terrified," but she knew she had no choice but to help the officer.

Adams, along with the restaurant's manager, applied pressure to the officer's wounds while employees called 911 to report an officer down.

The nurse said that the though the officer was grievously injured, he was only concerned about getting the dangerous suspect off of the streets.

“He knew I had to hold pressure on the wounds, he wanted me to pull my phone out so I could put all this in my notes," she recalled. “It’s a sign for me that God’s telling me that [there] was a purpose for me, that it was something I was meant to do, that I was meant to be there.”

The detective, who remains unnamed at this time, was said to have sustained life-threatening injuries but was listed in stable condition upon admission.

WITI reported that authorities were able to take two males — ages 17 and 18-years-old — into custody in connection with the incident.

No charges have been announced at the time of this reporting.

Adams said that despite horrible things happening around the world, "people are good" and that she believes good will win out.

"Don’t give up on your city. Don’t give up on people. People are good. Regardless if bad situations happen, we still have so many more good to that bad," Adams insisted.

(H/T: Faithwire)

Hate hoax: School said 'person of color' created Instagram account from which racist messages were sent to students, police reports reveal



Police last month told TheBlaze that a white high school student who said she was falsely accused of sending racist messages was not a suspect in the headline-grabbing incident — which the superintendent of White Bear Lake Area Schools in Minnesota had referred to as a "hoax."

Now it turns out — according to police reports obtained through a public records request by the College Fix — the school had stated that a "person of color" created the Instagram account from which the racist messages were sent.

Previously all that officials were willing to say was that the responsible party is a female juvenile, which clouded the origin of the racist messages that spurred a student walkout and protests and a lot of fear and hate and false accusations.

What's the background?

White Bear Lake Area High School students walked out of school on the morning of April 9 in protest over racist threats sent to several black students from an anonymous Instagram account, the Pioneer Press reported, which added that the messages contained death threats and repeated use of the N-word.

The paper reported in a follow-up story that a female student soon took responsibility for sending the messages, and Superintendent Wayne Kazmierczak said in a letter that the messages were "a hoax sent under false pretense." He added that the student "poses no threat to students of color," the Pioneer Press said.

But the paper said Kazmierczak soon penned a separate letter saying he regretted using the word "hoax" and didn't mean to "minimize the impact that racism or racist acts has on students and families who have been marginalized throughout history and in White Bear Lake Area Schools."

The superintendent also said he would recommend expulsion for the culprit due to violation of the district's bullying and harassment policies, the Pioneer Press added.

At the time police would not comment on the race of the student responsible for the messages, and the school district did not respond to TheBlaze's inquires about the race of the student behind the messages.

But Ellen Hiniker, White Bear Lake's city manager, had said in a statement — which appears to have been taken down but still can be viewed at the Internet Archive — that the "juvenile female" who created the anonymous Instagram account did so "to raise awareness of social and racial injustice due to past incidents that occurred at school."

"It has not yet been determined whether additional individuals contributed to the content of the postings associated with this account," Hiniker added in the statement. "Although the investigation is ongoing, it is important that the information we have at this time be shared to help ease fears associated with this particular incident."

White student said she was falsely accused

As the mystery deepened regarding the identity — and specifically the race — of the individual behind the racist messages, a white student told The Daily Wire she was falsely accused of the act.

Avery Severson, a sophomore at the high school, told the outlet that a black student accused her of sending the racist messages. The Daily Wire said the accusing student, Precious Boahen, shared a screenshot of the messages with the caption, "I bet you a billion bucks this is Avery Severson or one of her friends all mad because they can't have their Turning Point club at school."

More from the outlet:

Severson said that over the past year she has been stonewalled by her school administration in an effort to create a Turning Point USA club. In contrast, Boahen was able to create a black student affinity group with relative ease. Boahen accused Severson of being jealous of her ability to successfully kickstart a club. [...]

Severson told The Daily Wire that she was in a driver's education class on Wednesday, April 7, when the conversations were posted to social media. She denied the accusations and said she would never have made such abhorrent comments. [...]

The Severson family met with White Bear Lake High School administrators who encouraged Severson to remain silent about the situation. Classmates, Severson says, took her silence on the matter as an admission of guilt and threatened her. Severson was escorted to and from classes until April 12.

The outlet said Boahen publicly posted an email she sent to White Bear Lake administrators threatening to spill the story to the media and take legal action.

"If swift and sweeping action is not taken, I will be contacting news outlets to let the public know how [the administration] really operates in this city, and I will be looking for legal action as well," Boahen wrote, according to the Daily Wire.

With that, the high school launched an investigation, the outlet said.

But while White Bear Lake police would not comment on the race of the student responsible for the racist messages, police did confirm to TheBlaze that Severson was not a suspect.

Here's Severson recounting her ordeal to Fox News:

A new revelation

However, police reports obtained through a public records request by the College Fix indicate that the school had stated a "person of color" created the Instagram account from which the racist messages were sent.

The police reports go into detail regarding the investigation, which attempted — through tech forensics and search warrants — to get to the bottom of the identity of the person or persons responsible for sending the racist messages.

And while no names are revealed in the reports, more than one student interviewed by police expressed surprise that the school stated the Instagram account from which the racist messages were sent was created by a "person of color."

For instance, the report notes — in reference to one student interviewed — that "she was baffled by the statement from her school that claimed it was a juvenile person of color who had created the account."

The report also says — in reference to a second student interviewed — that "she also said she was very confused by the statement from the school about the account creator being a person of color."

Police determined where the Instagram account was created after matching the IP address and interviewed a third student who lives at the residence in question. The report said she admitted to creating the account but wouldn't admit to sending the racist messages or reveal the names of others who may have sent the messages who were physically with her at the time as she didn't want to be labeled a "snitch." This was after she initially indicated she knew who was behind the racist messages, police said.

No charges are being pursued in the case, the police report added.