Here is an interesting MacRumors article on the new AirTags, "
Apple Executive Says AirTags Designed to Track Items, Not Children or Pets".
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When I asked Drance about parents using AirTags to track their small children (such as during an outing at an amusement park) or pets (we know you’re up to something shady, Fluffy) she was quick to stress that the company designed the AirTag to track items, not people or pets. If parents would like to safely track their young children, she suggests an Apple Watch with Family Setup might be a better choice.
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Apple would prefer you pay them way more money for an Apple Watch to track your kid rather than use an AirTag.
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If you are concerned that there’s a risk of your being tracked you could contact law enforcement,” Drance notes. “What the [AirTag’s] serial number is used for is when you first set up your AirTag it is paired with an Apple ID along with some additional information such as your name, your email address, your date of birth, and things like that, which [Apple] could provide to law enforcement if asked for, with the proper warrants and process.
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This is good. If someone uses an AirTag for shady business, it is possible to identify them, assuming Apple will release the information. Or of course you could just use a hammer and send it to an early AirTag grave!
Personally, I just don't see the great allure to AirTags. If they cost $5 or less then maybe, but $29 seems rather steep. There are already alternatives hitting the market if you want to track items within your home. If you want to find the item you left on the cross town bus, then good luck using an AirTag. I really don't think they will be that effective in tracking items far away from your home. And if someone finds your item, they can easily throw away the AirTag or smash it, rendering it useless. Hopefully they would instead try to get the item back to you, but that probably won’t happen.
ETA: Having said all that, I’m sure many will like the AirTags and Apple will likely sell millions of them, at least until people begin to see their limitations. Looking through the forums on various sites it is obvious there is much confusion on them. So it might be difficult for Apple to maintain the early excitement over an extended period of time, especially as competition ramps up.