Apple's AirTag 2 is just as easy to tamper with as the original — and that's a dream come true for stalkers

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It looks far too easy to disable the internal speaker

Apple AirTag 2 held in the hand.
(Image credit: Tom's Guide / John Velasco)

The Apple AirTag 2 is here, after many years of waiting, and with it comes a bunch of new upgrades and design changes. Before launch, it had been rumored that the trackers would come with a louder speaker that's harder to tamper with — a change that would have been a major boon to security. Sadly, it seems this isn't the case.

While Apple promised that the second-generation AirTag would have “a suite of industry-first protections against unwanted tracking," a teardown from iFixit revealed this doesn't extend to the physical speaker itself. In fact, far from being tamper-proof, they found it's just as easy to disable as the original AirTag.

Apple Tried To Tamper Proof AirTag 2 Speakers - I Broke It - YouTube Apple Tried To Tamper Proof AirTag 2 Speakers - I Broke It - YouTube
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During the teardown process, iFixit highlighted the fact that the speaker is connected to the rest of the AirTag by two small wires. Once you open up the AirTag, those wires are totally exposed and can easily be broken with a soldering iron.

What's worse, there doesn't seem to be any kind of failsafe in place to stop the AirTag from operating if the speaker gets disconnected. iFixit reassembled the tag and found that it was working perfectly. In other words, if someone wants to disable the speaker for nefarious reasons, there's very little stopping them.

The only obstacle would be the lack of a soldering iron or some other tool capable of cutting two small wires. While not exactly ubiquitous tools, they are available for under $10, which isn't going to stop the most dedicated AirTag saboteurs.

Why does this matter?

Apple AirTag 2 held in the hand.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide / John Velasco)

The main issue here is that AirTags are unfortunately used to track innocent people far too often. Apple has done a lot of work to help warn people (primarily iPhone users) when there's a strange AirTag following them around. But getting alerts is only part of the story, since victims can force those rogue AirTags to make noise to help track them down.

Likewise, AirTags that have been separated from their owners' devices for too long will chirp to make their presence known — something that is designed to prevent people from being tracked without their knowledge.

No speaker means the act of finding a strange AirTag is significantly harder, and that's why AirTag stalkers have been known to tamper with the speaker. Even if they don't manage to disable the speaker entirely, muffling the sound can have a similar effect.

Making a speaker tamper-proof, or at least significantly harder to tamper with without breaking the AirTag, could have been a huge step toward improving public safety. It wouldn't stop talkers using AirTags (or similar trackers) from trying to follow their victims' movements, but it would have made it much harder to get away with it undetected.

At the very least, it would be nice if Apple had made the act of disabling the AirTag 2's speaker a little harder than breaking two measly little wires. I don't think that's too much to ask for.

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Tom Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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