A German activist is trying to track down a secret government intelligence agency. One of her research techniques is to mail Apple AirTags to see where they actually end up:
Wittmann says that everyone she spoke to denied being part of this intelligence agency. But what she describes as a “good indicator,” would be if she could prove that the postal address for this “federal authority” actually leads to the intelligence service’s apparent offices.
“To understand where mail ends up,” she writes (in translation), “[you can do] a lot of manual research. Or you can simply send a small device that regularly transmits its current position (a so-called AirTag) and see where it lands.”
She sent a parcel with an AirTag and watched through Apple’s Find My system as it was delivered via the Berlin sorting center to a sorting office in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. And then appears at the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Cologne.
So an AirTag addressed to a telecommunications authority based in one part of Germany, ends up in the offices of an intelligence agency based in another part of the country.
Wittmann’s research is also now detailed in the German Wikipedia entry for the federal telecommunications service. It recounts how following her original discovery in December 2021, subsequent government press conferences have denied that there is such a federal telecommunications service at all.
Here’s the original Medium post, in German.
In a similar story, someone used an AirTag to track her furniture as a moving company lied about its whereabouts.
More Stories
Apple Patches Three Actively Exploited Zero-Days
Bugs were found by Citizen Lab and Google Read More
How To Talk To Your Kids About Identity Theft
Let’s be honest, talking to your kids about identity theft isn’t probably top of your list. There’s a long list...
Snatch ransomware – what you need to know
The FBI and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have issued a joint advisory warning organisations about a ransomware-as-a-service...
UK-US Confirm Agreement for Personal Data Transfers
The agreement, which represents an extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, will enable the free flow of personal data...
Donald Trump Jr’s hacked Twitter account announces his father has died
Donald Trump Jr may not have just inherited his famous father's name. He may also have inherited his bad password...
Smashing Security podcast #340: Heated seats, car privacy, and Graham’s porn video
Do you know what data your car is collecting about you? Do you think it’s right for a car manufacturer...