It took me less than two minutes to disable the speaker on Apple's new AirTag. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
Stalkers can disable AirTag speakers to make them harder to find.
I disabled the speaker in two minutes with basic tools.
Apple could still push an update to detect tampering.
I love Apple AirTags. I have a lot of them in use, and they save me no end of hassles when I've put my keys down somewhere stupid, as well as no end of worry when traveling.
They are, without doubt, the best finder tags on the market.
Also: The best Bluetooth trackers of 2026: Our top picks to keep tabs on your stuff
But I also understand that they can be used for nefarious purposes. While Apple (and Google) have gone a long way to help prevent the tags from being used to stalk people, modified hardware still presents a problem. My investigations suggest that there's quite a market for tracker tags -- especially AirTags -- that have been modified. The most common modification is to disable the speaker.
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