Protégete

Bluetooth trackers were sold as a way to find lost keys. They also turned out to be a cheap, reliable way to follow a person, and the alerting systems that were added afterwards are the reason you can find one at all.

The important thing to understand first: your phone does not detect the tracker itself. It detects that an unknown tracker has been travelling with you, which is a different claim. That is why alerts arrive late rather than instantly - the system waits until it is fairly sure the device is not simply someone else's, passing by.

On an iPhone, an unknown AirTag moving with you triggers a notification on its own. Apple's Find My app also has a manual scan, and the alert can be made to play a sound on the tracker so you can locate it in a bag or a wheel arch.

On Android, detection of unknown trackers is built into recent versions and works across compatible trackers, not only AirTags. There is also a manual scan, which matters because it does not depend on the automatic alert having fired.

Both platforms share the same limitation: a tracker only announces itself once it has been separated from its owner for a while. Someone travelling in the same car as you is not separated from it, so no alert is generated. This is the gap that the alerts cannot close, and it is worth knowing before you conclude that a clean scan means a clean car.

If you do find one, the instinct is to destroy it immediately. Resist it for a moment: a tracker that has been found is evidence, and it holds a serial number that can be tied to the account that registered it. Photograph it in place, note where it was, and think about who should see it before it becomes a broken object in a bin.

Then consider your own position. If you believe someone is following you, the tracker is a symptom rather than the problem, and disabling it tells that person you have found it. That is sometimes the right move and sometimes not - it depends on a situation only you can judge, ideally with help from someone trained for it.