Keeping it secured.

I updated my recent piece on Apple’s AirTag tracking device here, showing how to remove the internal speaker which announces the AirTag’s location after it has been removed to a location remote from the owner’s iPhone. (No preaching, please. This information is in the public domain).

The AirTag announces that it has been moved in two ways. First, 8-24 hrs after being relocated it beeps. Second, it will broadcast an “AirTag moving with you” message to the thief’s iPhone, if he has one. Disabling the beeping takes away the more obvious of these two warning mechanisms. Why does Apple not provide a software switch to disable the beeper? Because then all the creeps and perverts out there would avail themselves of this functionality for illicit stalking of the innocent.

Once the beeper is disabled, the thief (with an iPhone) will have the challenge of finding the AirTag once its proximity is announced to him. That means a well hidden AirTag will delay detection for long enough, hopefully, for the owner to get a location fix and call the cops.

I have one AirTag installed in my Honda scooter in a location easily located by me, but it would be hard for a thief to find in under several hours. And he has better things to do with his time – like more thieving. Scooters are very easy to steal and readily resold in large cities. (Ads with “no title” in the description are common).

Now while I do not own an exotic, costly bicycle, an AirTag would seem an essential on such a machine. Easily stolen, easily sold, no registered title. The problem is where to locate it? Tests disclose that location inside a metal tube – down tube, handlebar, seat post – kills the transmission, so you want to either install the device in a carbon fiber component (if your machine has any) or securely attached to the frame. But secure attachment with regular fasteners is time and effort wasted for obvious reasons. What is needed is a security fastener, and you will not find a better selection than at McMaster Carr:

Beat this selection. Click the image for the site.

Use one of these with an appropriate holder, along with the matching fastening/removal tool, and you will make the bike thief’s job that much harder.