Elevation Lab pulls its AirTag Silencer, which disabled the speaker, after stalking concernsElevation Lab pulls its AirTag Silencer, which disabled the speaker, after stalking concerns

Accessory maker Elevation Lab has withdrawn its AirTag Silencer, a tool designed to disable the tracker's speaker.

The company emailed customers on 13 October to say the product is no longer for sale, MacRumors reports. The Silencer had a pin positioned over the AirTag's speaker: buyers removed the battery, fitted the Silencer and struck it with a hammer so the pin pierced the plastic cover and the speaker beneath.

Why did Elevation Lab make it?

Elevation Lab said it built the Silencer for AirTags hidden on valuable items such as bicycles, so that a thief could not hear the tracker and remove it. In its email it said it had made the product for its own bikes, but that in retrospect it could aid someone with bad intentions in tracking a person who would not get phone notifications. It says it will use its patent on the design to stop anyone else making one.

Before the reversal, Six Colors' Glenn Fleishman had called the device appalling, according to MacRumors. Elevation Lab's chief executive, Casey Hopkins, had argued that people can already silence AirTags themselves and that iPhone users still get alerts about unknown trackers travelling with them. MacRumors says it chose not to cover the launch at all.

Why does the AirTag sound matter?

An AirTag separated from its owner plays a sound so that someone it is following can find it. People with a smartphone can also be notified about an unknown tracker moving with them, as Hopkins pointed out, but anyone without one, or with notifications off, depends on the sound. Apple has strengthened these protections several times since 2021, and the second-generation AirTag has a louder speaker and more adhesive, making the speaker harder to remove.

Our take

Elevation Lab's own words make the point: the people a silent AirTag endangers are precisely those who would not get a phone notification. A child with an old phone, someone with alerts turned off, someone without a smartphone at all. A theft-recovery feature that works by removing the one safeguard those people have is not a fair trade, however many bicycles it might recover.

Using the patent to block copies is the most useful thing the company could do now, though it will not stop people damaging speakers with a screwdriver. The tension is real, and Apple has made the same kind of trade-off elsewhere in Find My, which can now hide your location from one person. APPDOOK's view is that anti-theft trackers for bikes and luggage should be products designed for the job, not AirTags with their safety removed. If you have bought a Silencer, the AirTag it was fitted to no longer plays its warning, and that is worth remembering before you lend, sell or give that tag away.