Elevation Lab pulls AirTag Silencer after stalking concerns

Elevation Lab has pulled its AirTag Silencer after acknowledging that the accessory could help people track others without the usual audible warning.¹

Why Elevation Lab removed the Silencer

The Silencer was designed to pierce an AirTag’s speaker so the tracker could be hidden on valuable property such as a bike without making a sound that might alert a thief. That same design also removed one of Apple’s safeguards against unwanted tracking.¹

An AirTag is meant to play a sound when it has been separated from its owner, alongside smartphone notifications warning someone that an unknown tracker may be travelling with them. AirTag stalking concerns have led Apple to strengthen those protections, including with the newer AirTag 2’s louder speaker.¹

Elevation Lab’s CEO Casey Hopkins told Six Colors that users could already silence an AirTag themselves, but the company later reversed course. In an email to customers, Elevation Lab said the product could aid someone with bad intentions and confirmed that it had been removed from sale.¹

What happens next?

The company says it will use its patent to prevent other manufacturers from making a similar accessory. Its website now promotes other AirTag products, but the Silencer is no longer listed among its available products.¹²

The withdrawal does not remove every privacy risk around trackers. It does, however, stop Elevation Lab from making a dedicated tool that defeats an alert built specifically to protect people from covert tracking.

Our opinion

Pulling the Silencer was the only sensible outcome. A product can have a legitimate anti-theft use and still be a poor public release when its central feature weakens a safety mechanism designed for everyone else. The important lesson is not that AirTags are perfect; it is that tracker accessories need to treat unwanted surveillance as a core design risk, not an edge case discovered after launch.