A Washington state woman is suing Apple over her husband’s ability to silence the stalking warnings meant to catch the trackers he hid among her belongings. The complaint was filed this week and was first reported by KING5 in Seattle.
Three AirTags trailed her over months of domestic abuse. One sat in her son’s diaper bag. Another was sewn beneath the rear seat upholstery of her car. A third turned up in the console of a vehicle her husband owned and she had taken to Oregon.
Her own iPhone never raised an alarm. She says the phones of other people nearby picked the devices up, and that her husband repeatedly turned her unwanted tracking notifications off after unlocking her handset with a passcode he knew.
That gap sits at the centre of the claim. Lock-screen controls already demand a passcode before they let anyone touch the tracker alerts. Once someone crosses that line, however, nothing extra stands between them and the switches. The plaintiff argues Apple should require Face ID or Touch ID before the notifications can be muted, even on an unlocked phone, and should tell the owner when they are.
A protection order followed in November 2024, after a court found her husband posed a credible threat and barred electronic surveillance. According to the filing she now lives with persistent anxiety, broken sleep, social withdrawal, the loss of a job and legal costs above $60,000.
The suit asks for damages and a jury trial, plus tighter safeguards on the accessory in future.
Apple’s tracker has drawn a wave of similar filings. Two Michigan women sued in August over alerts they say never came, and an Oregon woman filed in September after a former partner allegedly placed one beneath her car.
