An Apology (elevationlab.com)

86 pointsby cdrnsf18 hours ago106 comments

jubilanti 41 minutes ago

Tracking the person who stole your bike IS stalking, just a socially acceptable form. That's the point.

wavemode 10 minutes ago

There are plenty of GPS trackers which can be used for anti-theft purposes. AirTag isn't designed for that, largely because Apple didn't want the bad PR.

Barbing 16 hours ago

Photo of the device on MacRumors (who intentionally didn’t publicize its release): https://macrumors.com/2026/10/13/elevation-lab-airtag-silenc...

kotaKat 13 hours ago

Feels oddly concerning and complicit that MacRumors would willingly say “yeah we knew it existed but we didn’t want to publicize it” to let them slip it into the market in the first place.

If only journalists wanted to try to do their job instead of regurgitating Bloomberg’s trash rumors.

The standards you walk past are the standards you accept, and MR must accept that stalking is cool.

hluska 8 hours ago

Did you actually read the article? It’s very critical of the technology. It feels ‘oddly concerning and complicit’ (not to mention disingenuous) that you are totally unaware of the criticisms within it. In absolutely no way does this article promote stalking. If you read the article, your reading skills need a lot of work.

If you didn’t read the article, you’re a troll.

kotaKat 8 hours ago

Yes, I read the article.

"We did not cover the launch of the Elevation Lab Silencer because we didn't want to publicize an accessory that does away with the AirTag 's anti-stalking feature"

So they knew it launched (from Elevation Lab announcing it) and decided not to run a story at that time to criticize it themselves... try again?

Running a story after the product is pulled and the outrage launches is a bad look for the entire tech press out there that let it slide.

BobaFloutist 4 hours ago

Possibly they didn't want to publicize it because they were worried that their platform would lead to more people buying and misusing it?

neaden 2 hours ago

Do you think if a stalker found out about the AirTag silencer from an article they would decide not to use it because the article was critical? They made the choice that publicizing it would lead to harm, so didn't.

wavemode 16 minutes ago

Streisand effect... why would you write an article about a product you don't want people to know about? What end result would you foresee in doing that, logically?

chaps 2 hours ago

You expect way too much of journalists. Mostly rightfully so, but -- it's not really possible for journalists to publish everything they know. Going through the editing, investigation, cuts... it's just not tenable.

Johnny555 an hour ago

We have removed the product and will use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future.

Doesn't the patent just document how it works so individuals can create and release 3D models of the device so anyone can create their own?

bob1029 16 hours ago

> We have removed the product and will use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future.

I am not sure I follow the unique technological aspects of this solution. The last time I needed to silence a beeping contraption, I broke out the cordless drill and ran it through the offending PCB element. Air tags seem affordable enough to practice this operation a few times. Not sure what is actually protected here.

nomel an hour ago

It's all from people not understanding the very trivial technology that's is the hardware of an AirTag. Most tech is magic to most people. To be fair, fact that we use electric fields to bend a literal crystal, to make sound, is pretty damn magic. :)

Anyone that knows how a speaker works also knows how to silence an AirTag, without instructions required. Anyone that wants to silence an AirTag can just find one of the hundreds of videos on youtube [1], and spend some minutes carrying out the act.

The removal of this product will stop exactly zero people from silencing an AirTag, besides those that are probably doing it for legitimate purposes. For example, I silenced the one in my car, because I was tired of it constantly beeping anytime someone with a iPhone drove with me (including my family).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to++silence...

orliesaurus 15 hours ago

What's the best thing to track bike thieves these days? I own 6 bikes (yes one for each type of road I ride ..) and I have never found a good solution?

teen 15 hours ago

tile tracker, it's airtag, but doesn't do the stalking warnings if you sign an agreement

xtiansimon 11 hours ago

Except you have to use the naff Life360 app.

jareklupinski 11 hours ago

paint them so they look undesireable

mikestew an hour ago

Doesn't really answer the question that was asked, though.

jareklupinski 20 minutes ago

XY problem

amelius 2 hours ago

> and will use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future

What prevents anyone from selling a device but distributing the software through a separate channel?

beAbU an hour ago

What software? It's a pin you strike with a hammer to pierce the piezo speaker within.

amelius an hour ago

They patented the hammer and nail?

JumpCrisscross an hour ago

FTFA: "The Silencer had a pin located where the AirTag speaker is. The device description instructed users to remove the AirTag battery, apply the Silencer, and hit it with a hammer to cause the pin to pierce the AirTag 's plastic cover and the speaker below."

The device helps you aim the nail and then, presumably, makes a watertight seal around your now-punctured AirTag.

serf 32 minutes ago

I don't want weaponization of patents regardless of how much "Think of the Children!" and "We must defend the public!" is injected.

white knight with a sword made of patent lawsuits doesn't exist in my world.

It was good of them to decide to stay away from producing the product they realized they didn't want to exist, they should have stopped there instead of villainizing themselves by self-deputizing.

Perenti 17 hours ago

The "read more" link points to the same page. There is no more to read apparently. Why does this seem suspicious?

troupo 17 hours ago

It's likely a Wordpress page with a "read more" plugin/functionality that is as unworking as it has always been.

steve_taylor 16 hours ago

Their AirTag Magnetic Mount is arguably just as "dangerous". It can be mounted to the underside of a car in one second and no one inside the car will hear it.

TeMPOraL 16 hours ago

Yes. Magnets and duct tape are particularly dangerous combination, too, and even cheaper.

probably_wrong 15 hours ago

There's a point that comes up often when discussing locks (what's their point if they can easily be opened and/or cut?), namely, that they help keeping honest people honest.

Yes, duct tape exists, but a determined stalker has much better tools anyway. The point is rather the "amateur" stalker, the one who didn't leave the house planning to stalk someone but suddenly decides to attach their backpack tag to someone's car.

Still worth pointing out that the mere existence of the Air tag enabled a level of stalking that didn't exist before.

nozzlegear 8 hours ago

You'd probably get the notification pretty quickly though, assuming the installer didn't use whatever "silencing" tech this post is apologizing for. My wife usually leaves her purse in the car, and I get the "[Person's] AirTag is moving with you!" notification whenever I leave the house without her. I keep forgetting to trust it or whatever.

lifeisloving 17 hours ago

Do Iphone users get notifications everytime an airtag is nearby them??

jaredwiener 17 hours ago

If an unrecognized AirTag is following you, you'll get a notice.

I'm not constantly notified that my keys are with me. But if you stuck an AirTag in my backpack, my phone would tell me.

forsalebypwner 17 hours ago

No, only if an airtag that's not theirs follows them for an amount of time

msteffen 17 hours ago

Yeah, I forget the wording but there’s a notification like “so-and-so’s AirTag is near you and they can see where you are.” My spouse put AirTags in our baby stuff and I get them whenever I’m using it.

grumbelbart2 16 hours ago

It's also other devices. I used to get a notification that my wife's AirPods would be following me. It only got silenced when we formed an Apple family.

kalleboo 17 hours ago

You get a notification when an AirTag is following you for some time, but the AirTags owner is not near it. It's meant to detect someone slipping an AirTag on you without the false alarms from, say, taking a walk with a friend who has one in their backpack.

froh 17 hours ago

Wait so a thieve an eye with an iPhone who steals my expensive bicycle that I have tagged with an airtag Is receiving a notification that there is an airtag "following" them nearby?

cicko 17 hours ago

Yes, the moral of the story is - don't steal expensive bikes if you don't want to get spammed by notifications that the bike is following you.

klipt 16 hours ago

With the side effect that the thief can easily find and remove the tag.

ilamont 2 hours ago

Depends on the thief, the object, how well the tracking device is hidden, and how much time the thief has to investigate.

Many dumb thieves out there, like the airport workers who steal luggage and take it home.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=airport...

gbalduzzi 17 hours ago

Yes. The alternative is to have stalkers using hidden airtags

Barbing 16 hours ago

They always talk about lost items in their marketing. They don’t talk about theft prevention or finding pets or anything. Gotta go for a mini GPS tracker or something for protecting $$$$(+) bikes (which should never leave one’s sight anyway).

TeMPOraL 16 hours ago

> They don’t talk about theft prevention or finding pets or anything.

In particular I'm guessing you can't use it to track your kid's backpack either; for that, you should instead buy your 7yo their own iPhone.

> Gotta go for a mini GPS tracker or something for protecting $$$$(+) bikes

The same one actual stalkers would use?

dwaite 16 hours ago

> In particular I'm guessing you can't use it to track your kid's backpack either; for that, you should instead buy your 7yo their own iPhone.

You can - there will be spurious phone notifications and audible notifications.

TeMPOraL 16 hours ago

Meaning: you can't, because the point of it is to help protect your kid (or, more probably, help find their backpack when they absent-mindedly lose sight of it), not to spam teachers with notifications and disrupt everyone with random beeping.

hluska 8 hours ago

If I just say that you’re the smartest person ever will you stop this? Your point has been made over and over again… just like every single time I read you.

kalleboo 15 hours ago

They've set the nuisance limits just high enough that they work for tracking your kids, I think it has to be away from the owner for 24 hours

Barbing 15 hours ago

>The same one actual stalkers would use?

Right, like “cut your dinner with a knife, the one actual murderers would use.”

They had to balance needs of us owners of things and needs of abused partners and the general public. Other trackers have been available long long before AirTags and haven’t gone away since Apple’s introduction.

As it stands, plenty are still very upset about the existence of AirTags. Especially given the ease of disabling the speaker and the lack of Android notifications at launch.

mahboi 17 hours ago

So what good is piercing the AirTag's speaker?

dwaite 16 hours ago

It stops the audible notifications for people who aren't looking at a phone screen.

tuvix 16 hours ago

They also ring when a non-associated iphone is moving with them for some time.

kalleboo 15 hours ago

Android users

mahboi 6 hours ago

Supposedly Apple opened this up to Android already

philipkglass 5 hours ago

They have. I got a warning on my Android phone recently because I was traveling overnight on a train and somebody in a neighboring room had an AirTag.

drusepth 17 hours ago

Not sure about on iPhone but Android definitely alerts you if an unknown airtag follows you while moving.

nazgul17 17 hours ago

We have AirTags registered to my wife's account because I use Android. I have one in my work backpack, and every morning I get a notification that an unknown tracker is following me. I wish there was a way to silence the warning for that specific tag.

sparqlittlestar 17 hours ago

My husband's "shared" his with me and now I don't get warnings anymore, but we're both on iOS

gfody 16 hours ago

this is the perfect use case for a little faraday baggy

pnw 17 hours ago

Yes, within about 30 minutes. They are basically useless for theft prevention as a result. Apple nerfed the functionality after someone used it for stalking. You'll notice there is no mention of theft prevention in the marketing materials anymore.

Apple even provide a handy Android app for locating them.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.trac...

Gigachad 17 hours ago

There never was mention of theft prevention. The release day marketing was about losing your keys in the couch. Day one ios would alert you if a tag was tracking you but it took a while for them to collaborate with Android on it.

The societal harm from allowing cheap silent tracking of people is greater than the benefit of recovering stolen bags.

gfody 16 hours ago

maybe they could set something up where local pd handles the tracking if/when necessary

RIMR an hour ago

That sounds like yet another reason not to use AirTags, since they now give location access to the authorities...

No, I do not want the solution to this problem to be adding AirTags to the government panopticon.

ncr100 16 hours ago

Android 6 and up has in unbuilt support, per that app

Krasnol 15 hours ago

> Apple even provide a handy Android app for locating them.

Took them half a year and public pressure to develop something. 3 years for a joint standard (DULT) with google after google developed something by themselves.

There is always pressure required for those things...

compsciphd 12 hours ago

I've said before, apple should just create a law enforcement mode that one can turn their air tags into. When in law enforcement mode, the tag will not report to your page, but law enforcement can go through legal channels to get the devices location.

To put a device into (or out of) law enforcement mode, can only be done over bluetooth (i.e. in proximity to device)./

BobaFloutist 4 hours ago

This would work great if law enforcement was interested in recovering stolen goods.

clunkclunk an hour ago

Based on how many issues we have with police using Flock for their own personal issues, I think this may not be a great solution either.

kylec 17 hours ago

Nice apology, though weird flex about their expensive bikes in there

elictronic 16 hours ago

The average person doesn't think about bikes of the ring ring variety costing 15k dollars.

seizethecheese 6 hours ago

I don’t know, the expensive bikes explained the need for the tool.

dgellow an hour ago

How is mentioning their valuable bikes a flex?

gorgoiler 16 hours ago

The article linked to from The Verge is a good one, with quotes from EFF and Elevation Labs themselves.

https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/10/silencing-airtags-enables...

The outrage feels misplaced. The way to stop evil people abusing your global track-anything network is to not have a global track-anything network. Apple PR must be on yellow alert right now feeling glad they’ve dodged a bullet.

Imagine if Meta did this instead. They could network their smart glasses and leverage their ubiquity to help people find lost pets — but strictly only lost pets, not people — but then Something Labs might ship a tool to make a person's face look pet-like enough to turn Find My Pet into Find My Ex.

TeMPOraL 16 hours ago

> The outrage feels misplaced.

Agreed.

> The way to stop evil people abusing your global track-anything network is to not have a global track-anything network.

Or, to have a global track-anything network, and recognize this is the wrong level to try and solve the abuse problem.

> Apple PR must be on yellow alert right now feeling glad they’ve dodged a bullet.

Nah, they knew about this from the start - that's why they nerfed the whole design to the point it barely has any use case; otherwise they'd be buried with complaints and horror stories and media criticism, and the device would've never reached the market.

otikik 16 hours ago

> leverage their ubiquity

We live in different worlds

JumpCrisscross an hour ago

> Apple PR must be on yellow alert right now feeling glad they’ve dodged a bullet

iPhones notify you when someone else's AirTag is following you.

dgellow an hour ago

That’s a pretty good apology post. No corporate bullshit. Kudos

atemerev 16 hours ago

I wonder why no one writes that all UWB devices - airtags, phones, headphones - form the opportunistic P2P network perfect for mass surveillance. Best case scenario, all phones and airtags can be localized on demand by FBI - yes, the current one. Worst case scenario, by FSB.

Krasnol 15 hours ago

I can't really understand how one could have been so naive to not see the obvious misuse of this thing in the first place. AirTags started 2021 and the backlash was spectacular. Did they forget about it?

...or didn't they care, like Apple, and just cashed in before the shitstorm?

jrflowers 15 hours ago

> use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future

lmao “In lieu of direct sales we will be recouping the cost of our hammer-as-a-stalking-accessory patent through litigation”

cloudie78 16 hours ago

Call me dumb I still don’t understand what exact problem these clowns were trying to solve

valvar 16 hours ago

Theft?

occz 16 hours ago

It says right there in the blog post - bike theft prevention.

AirTags are less useful for that use-case right now since the bike thief will get notified of the existence of the tracker on the bike once they transport it, and are hence prompted to find and remove the tag.

avhception 16 hours ago

The blog post said bike theft prevention, yes. I'm not familiar with the ways AirTags work, so I had absolutely no idea how "silencing" an AirTag would help with that. I actually came here to the comments in the hopes of finding an explanation (which you thankfully included).

TeMPOraL 16 hours ago

I think half the comments still miss what the "notified" part means. It's not jut an iPhone notification that a tag is following you. The tag literally beeps loudly, to help the thief locate it.

mbreese 16 hours ago

I think the idea was to intentionally disable the speaker in an AirTag you own. The use-case that I think they were describing would be to make it more difficult for a thief to find the AirTag and remove it. Thus, you'd be able to track your stolen bike for longer (and have a better change of finding it).

Of course, this would also make it easier for someone to disable a speaker and track a person without their knowledge, making it more difficult for that person to find a stealthy AirTag.

I'm not surprised that someone didn't think this through. I am surprised at how many people this must have gotten by to make it into production. You'd think that with any AirTag related product, privacy would be more central to the planning.

elictronic 16 hours ago

Probably 2-3 people. From a random search online it looks like the company has about a dozen employees.

cloudie78 16 hours ago

Ah okay yeah that makes sense

Was missing the “make it more difficult for a thief to find the AirTag and remove it” part.

Cheers!

dwaite 16 hours ago

The audible tone can interfere with other stalking-adjacent use cases - for instance use for pet tags, for tracking children's backpacks, and so on.

It actually doesn't help as much for anti-theft, because a thief still might be smart enough at this point to check their phone for AirTag notifications. The audible tone may not even hit in a theft instance.

dang 2 hours ago

> these clowns

Can you please edit out swipes from your HN comments and stick to posting thoughtfully? This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

altmanaltman 17 hours ago

> Elevation Lab stops selling its AirTag “silencer.”The tool, which Six Colors recently slammed as “appalling,” pierces the AirTag’s speaker, preventing it from emitting sound. While Elevation Lab says it designed the tool to prevent thieves from detecting the presence of an AirTag, it also disables an anti-stalking feature that audibly alerts people when an unknown tracker is following them. > Elevation Lab says it has stopped selling the tool and will use its “patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future,” according to MacRumors.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/1010718/elevation-labs-stops-s...

Provide the full context when you apologize, not whitewash what you did. Go on a ride on your more expensive than car bike, maybe that will help you reasses your product ideation.

monideas 17 hours ago

> pierces the AirTag’s speaker

> also disables an anti-stalking feature that audibly alerts people

It sounds like piercing the speaker is the thing that disables the audible alert and the intent was not to help stalkers.

mmh0000 17 hours ago

1. This is so dumb. You can be tracked any number of ways. The AigTag with or without sound is the dumbest way to track someone.

2. Physically disabling the AirTag speaker is soooo easy. It took under 3 minutes to do it on the AirTag I hid on my motorcycle.

3. "An Apology" is more like a weird advertisement (I guess it worked, I read the stupid thing. But, in fairness, I've now blocked their site in a custom ublock filter, so hopefully I never stumble on it again).

4. They have expensive bikes... Why? Who cares? That's not relevant to anything!? Why did they put that in there? Was this written by a 4th grader? Fuck me. I wish I had just read more AI slop instead.

zhiyan 17 hours ago

1. There are a million ways to die. But that's no execute for companies to make products that could potentially kill people - in dumb ways. 2. "Easy" is subjective - something easy for one may not be so easy for others. 3. This guy blocked their site in a custom ublock filter... Why? Who cares? That's not relevant to anything!? Why did this guy put that in there? Was this written by a 4th grader? 4. Yea, go read more AI slop, good idea.

mmh0000 7 hours ago

Nearly every product could "potentially kill people", including bottled water.

"Easy" is not subjective in this case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vAQNedIa0o

Pry and poke.

I think you missed my point on #4; it was sarcasm, which, to be fair, in our current world, sarcasm can't be discerned from truth, so that's my fault. To be clear, on #4: I do not want AI Slop. I do not want "apologies" as hidden advertisements. AI Slop would have been the lesser of two evils. Still evil.

mahboi 17 hours ago

Doesn't your phone still tell you that the AirTag has been following you?

dwaite 16 hours ago

I've heard one of the more significant concerns is escape from domestic abuse situations. In that case, people are often told to abandon their technology since it may be used to track them - but they might not know about the tracker tile/airtag hidden within a jacket.

mahboi 16 hours ago

I meant, the point of this AirTag noise disabler was to track stolen bikes and stuff. This doesn't help if the thief has a phone. Combined with what you're saying, sounds like this tool was only useful for domestic violence.

nathanaldensr 11 hours ago

My Pixel 7 does, as well. My mother and I use AirTags to keep track of her vehicle and my dad's truck and wallet (he has dementia).

mmh0000 7 hours ago

Yes.

The goal isn't to hide that someone is tracking them after they stole my motorcycle.

The goal was to make it ungodly difficult to actually find the AirTag hidden on the motorcycle.

mahboi 5 hours ago

Thanks, I get it now

hliyan 16 hours ago

What would be dumb is to not discontinue an unsafe product because there are more dangerous products out there.

InsideOutSanta 16 hours ago

You vastly overestimate the intelligence of most stalkers.

mmh0000 7 hours ago

Do I? I don't think so... The thing with most criminals is that we only hear about the stupid ones that get caught.

Side note, AirTags are terrible for tracking someone, as noted everywhere else in this thread, they beep, they alert other phones, and you're giving control to Apple.

Here's one with no beeping or phone alerts for $18, cheaper than an AirTag:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CG2D8FZ5

augment_me 17 hours ago

Vibe-coded clone in 3..2..1..

While I understand the reasoning this is just virtue signaling in a time where software is free.

jakelazaroff 17 hours ago

You're gonna vibe code a clone of hardware?

Also, even if it were software, what is virtue signaling about this? If they offer some software at any point, they should continue to offer that software to new users in perpetuity?

incanus77 an hour ago

I'm a happy customer of three of their products, but: tell me you don't have any women on your team with influence without telling me.