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So you were driving down the road the other day and a strange alert popped up on your phone: “AirTag Found Moving With You.” All this means is that your phone detected an unpaired Apple AirTag tracker moving as it moves. The purpose of the alert is to keep someone with bad intentions from using a simple AirTag to track your car–or you.

What’s an AirTag? A round keychain dongle that Apple makes for you to track personal items such as your purse or even a key ring. You can pair them with your phone or laptop, and then they broadcast their own location information. This way, if you lose whatever you attached the AirTag to, you may be able to find it.

In the wrong hands, this powerful technology can be dangerous. If a car thief sees a vehicle they want to steal in a parking lot, they can attach an AirTag to it. Then they can open their phone and track the AirTag to figure out where the owner lives and formulate a plan to steal it. Or a house robber could use the same method to figure out where potential victim lives.

Apple doesn’t make the only GPS tracker. But it makes one of the most popular. So its engineers developed an ingenious method to keep you safe. If a phone and an AirTag that isn’t paired with it travel next to one another for long enough, the phone will alert its owner. That’s the purpose of the “AirTag Found Moving With You” notification.

So what should you do? Don’t drive home. Instead, head for a safe, well-lit place such as a gas station. Then click on the notification. This should open the “Find My iPhone” app which will show you the location of the AirTag. Finally, click the button labeled “Play Sound: Locate AirTag.” The Apple AirTag in question should start ringing. You can walk around your vehicle and listen for the alert sound to see if it is attached on, in, or beneath your car.

Note that you can occasionally get this notification by accident. For example, someone on a bus you are driving next to may have an AirTag in their backpack. So if you play the sound and can’t find the AirTag, you are very likely safe. But if you continue driving and get the notification again, you may need to enlist help. This is because clever thieves have been known to remove the speakers from AirTags. Luckily, you can go to the authorities because the police can access AirTag locations through Apple in situations like this.

See how to use the “Find My” app to figure out if you are being tracked by an AirTag in the video below:

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Staff Writer

Henry Cesari

Henry Cesari joined MotorBiscuit in 2021 and brings his deep interest in vintage cars, trucks, and motorcycles to the site. Having restored his first classic car at just 16 years old, Henry has wrenched on everything from overland campers to Japanese motorcycles and even pre-war Bugattis. Henry is also an avid attendee at local car shows and genuinely enjoys connecting with fellow auto enthusiasts.

Henry earned a Bachelor’s in Anthropology and English from the University of Vermont. He has since incorporated his love of the written word with his admiration of classic cars. While Henry is interested in vintage cars, he believes the golden age of cars is yet to come. He is confident journalists will play an important role in this revolution by exposing the industry as it is now and envisioning its possible future.