Apple’s AirTag is a remarkably small, powerful tracker that excels at helping you find misplaced everyday objects like keys, backpacks, or luggage. At just over an inch in diameter, it slips easily into pockets, loops, and cases, making it tempting to attach to virtually anything you do not want to lose. However, there are important hardware limits, legal risks, and ethical concerns that make AirTags a poor or even dangerous choice for tracking certain categories of things. Using them in the wrong situations can compromise privacy, damage the device, or create a false sense of security that fails you when it matters most.
Understanding how AirTags actually work is crucial: they do not use GPS, but instead rely on Bluetooth and Apple’s Find My network, which crowdsources location pings from nearby Apple devices. This model is ideal for densely populated areas and frequently trafficked environments, but it breaks down when there are few Apple devices nearby or when the tag is isolated for long periods. The coin-cell battery and IP67 water resistance also limit how and where you should deploy an AirTag. With those constraints in mind, several common use cases—pets, people, vehicles, packages, and items that live in harsh conditions—are better served by dedicated tracking or security solutions designed for those scenarios.
Why AirTags Are Bad For Pets
Clipping an AirTag to a dog or cat’s collar may sound like an easy way to keep tabs on them, but even Apple explicitly says AirTags are not designed for tracking pets. The reliance on Bluetooth and nearby Apple devices means a wandering animal in a rural or sparsely populated area may simply drop off the map. If your pet slips out at night or into fields and forests, there may be no phones around to report its location, leaving you with a false impression of safety.
There are also physical safety concerns. Pets can chew on or swallow a tag attached to a collar, which introduces choking and internal injury risks, especially given the lithium coin-cell battery inside. For animals, a dedicated GPS-based pet tracker with robust attachment hardware, weather resistance, and real-time location updates is far more appropriate. These devices are specifically engineered for outdoor use, long-distance roaming, and emergency recovery, even if they require paid subscriptions.
People And Privacy
Using AirTags to track people without their knowledge is both unethical and potentially illegal, and Apple has engineered multiple protections to discourage this kind of misuse. If an AirTag is separated from its owner and moving with someone else for an extended period, it will emit audible alerts to draw attention to its presence. iPhones will also display notifications when an unknown AirTag appears to be traveling with the user, and both iOS and Android devices can scan to identify nearby tags that might be used for stalking.
These safeguards mean AirTags not only fail as covert tracking tools, but will actively alert the very person you are trying to monitor, even if your intentions are benign, such as checking on a child or an elderly family member. For legitimate location sharing, Apple’s built-in Find My location sharing or third-party family safety apps are far safer and more transparent. They require consent, show ongoing visibility, and are designed around privacy, not stealth.
Vehicles, Extreme Conditions, And Packages
AirTags can be helpful for remembering where you parked or finding misplaced car keys, but they are not a reliable anti-theft solution for vehicles. A thief with an iPhone will likely receive alerts about a tag moving with them, and even without a notification, the AirTag’s periodic chime can reveal its hiding spot. Because the tag’s location updates depend on passing Apple devices, a stolen car left in a remote area or parked in a garage might not report its position at all, undercutting the sense of security you might expect.
Exposure to extreme temperatures and moisture also pushes AirTags beyond what they are designed to handle. The internal CR2032 battery can degrade rapidly or even fail in very hot or cold environments, and repeated cycles of soaking and drying can compromise the water-resistance seals over time. Attaching an AirTag to equipment that lives outdoors—such as snowblowers, bikes stored in unheated sheds, or gear left in the elements—raises the risk that the tag will fail right when you need it most.
Why Packages Are Tricky
Dropping an AirTag into a valuable shipment may seem like a clever way to monitor its journey, but this approach has significant drawbacks. Because the tag’s tracking relies on nearby Apple devices, coverage is inconsistent along shipping routes, particularly when packages move through warehouses, trucks, or sorting centers with limited consumer devices in range. You will likely see sporadic, delayed updates instead of real-time tracking, making it less useful than the carrier’s official tracking tools.
International shipments introduce additional complications. Data protection and privacy regulations in some countries may consider hidden trackers inside packages problematic, especially if they can be tied to individuals. Moreover, AirTags separated from their owners for long periods will start to chirp, potentially alerting handlers or thieves that something unusual—and possibly valuable—is inside. Specialized logistics trackers, which often include cellular or GPS connectivity and are built for transport environments, provide more reliable and legally straightforward solutions.
When AirTags Make Sense
Despite these limitations, AirTags remain excellent for many everyday uses when deployed thoughtfully. They excel at tracking personal items that stay in human environments: keys, wallets, bags, laptops, cameras, or checked luggage. In these contexts, the dense presence of Apple devices ensures frequent location updates, and the tag itself remains within temperature and moisture limits. For travel, they offer peace of mind by letting you see whether your suitcase made it onto the plane or is still sitting in another airport.
The key is to understand that AirTags are general-purpose item trackers tuned for human environments—not universal GPS beacons or security systems. Respecting privacy, staying within hardware limits, and choosing dedicated devices for pets, vehicles, outdoor gear, and shipments will keep you on the right side of both ethics and effectiveness. Used wisely, AirTags are a powerful tool; used blindly, they can create risks and disappointments that are easily avoided.
