Apple plans to introduce a number of changes to make it harder to misuse AirTags to track someone.

The button-sized devices are designed to work with Apple’s ‘Find My’ network to locate lost items.

The company said its changes to the device will make suspicious tags easier to find, and alert users earlier that an AirTag may be travelling with them.

In January, a number of women told the BBC they had been followed using AirTags.

Apple launched AirTags in April last year. The small, circular devices can be attached to luggage or keys – anything you could lose.

But the devices can be misused to track people by being hidden in a car, or on a personal item such as a bag.

As part of the changes to make misuse harder, Apple said every user setting up their AirTag for the first time will see a message warning that using the device to track people without consent is a crime in many regions around the world.

Currently, iPhone users (and Android users who download an app) receive “unwanted tracking” alerts if an unknown AirTag moves with them.

Apple announced that people will be alerted earlier that an unknown AirTag is travelling with them.

And when people are warned of “unwanted tracking” by an AirTag, users of iPhone 11, iPhone 12, and iPhone 13 devices will be able to use “precision finding”, to see the distance and direction to an unknown AirTag when it is in range. Previously only the owner of the AirTag could do this.