Can a locked AirTag still be used by someone else?

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Can a locked AirTag still be used by someone else?

I lost an air tag. It showed up as being in a supermarket four miles away. Store Security noted the loss but I don’t think they did anything else. After two more days it showed up in remote woodland five miles from me, seven miles from the store. Apple had been notified and the tag was locked. After three more days it showed up at a residential address in a town sixteen miles away. It spent all day Sunday at that address. Monday it went to commercial premises in the same town then back to the address at night. Tuesday it went to various addresses in that town as if in a delivery van and then to the same commercial premises.

The question is, despite locking can the possessor make use of the tag? If so does that have any adverse consequence for me? I don’t care if whoever has got it can use just so long as it doesn’t give him a connection to me.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPad, iPadOS 17

Posted on Oct 22, 2024 7:24 AM

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Answer 1

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Tesserax

Level 10

159,936 points

Oct 22, 2024 2:47 PM in response to Fitaboot

By default, when you pair an AirTag with your iPhone, it become associated (locked) to your Apple ID.

In addition, you have the option to place an AirTag into "Lost Mode." When in this mode, you can elect to include contact information, so that a Finder can contact you. Outside of that, Apple will NOT provide anyone (other than you) with who the tag's owner is.

What's also important to understand here is that the AirTag does NOT know its own location. It would rely on the Apple Find My network, which consists of literally millions of other iPhones, to relay the tag's ID (along with the phone's GPS location) to the Apple servers over the Internet. The key here is only YOU can get these location updates. There is no way for the Finder to know your location from the tag.

Unless you remove this tag from your Apple ID, the Finder cannot use the tag themselves, nor can anyone they may give/sell the tag to, use it either.

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Can a locked AirTag still be used by someone else?

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