AirGuard - AirTag protection

Technische Universität Darmstadt

About this app

With AirGuard, you get the anti-stalking protection you deserve!
The app scans your surroundings in the background to detect trackers like AirTags, Samsung SmartTags, or Google Find My Device trackers. If a tracker is following you, you will receive an instant notification.

These trackers are often no larger than a coin and are unfortunately misused to secretly track people. Since each tracker works differently, you would typically need multiple apps to detect unwanted tracking.
AirGuard combines the detection of various trackers into a single app – keeping you protected with ease.

Once a tracker is detected, you can make it play a sound (for supported models) or perform a manual scan to locate it. If you find a tracker, we recommend disabling it to prevent further tracking of your location.

The app stores location data exclusively on your device, allowing you to review where a tracker has followed you. Your personal data is never shared.

If no trackers are found, the app runs silently in the background and won’t bother you.

How does the app work?

AirGuard uses Bluetooth to detect AirTags, Samsung SmartTags, and other trackers. All data is processed and stored locally on your device.
If a tracker is detected in at least three different locations, you will receive a warning. You can adjust the security level in the settings to receive even faster alerts.

Who are we?

We are part of the Technical University of Darmstadt. This project is part of the scientific research conducted by the Secure Mobile Networking Lab.
Our goal is to protect people’s privacy and investigate how widespread the issue of tracker-based stalking is.

You can voluntarily participate in an anonymous study to help us gain more insights into the usage and spread of these trackers.

This app will never be monetized – there are no ads and no paid features. You will never be charged for using it.

Our privacy policy can be found here:
https://tpe.seemoo.tu-darmstadt.de/privacy-policy.html

Legal Notice

AirTag, Find My, and iOS are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
This project is not affiliated with Apple Inc.

Ratings and reviews

So far it's detected a airtag on my vehicle, which I am taking to someone to search for. I wish it wouldn't pick up apple tablets, phones and such. But I would really like if we could get more explaination on what the tracker means, how long it's been tracking like to which locations, and gave me better details on the map. Also when I was hitting the button to make the airtag make a sound it wasn't working. Please keep working on this app to improve, we need this safe technology.

I like the concept! I installed the app and dug through the source code. The biggest weakness of this app is the location data quality is poor. It looks like location comes from the GPS or network, whatever is fastest, but not whichever is most accurate. Bluetooth tracking is in the range of tens of meters which needs high accuracy to work, so the idea doesn't work, unless you get lucky and get good location data.

It failed to detect an AirTag-- I was near it for about 10 minutes before being told it was there, so timing may have been an issue. I had the app make the tag beep and it beeped. The scan and notifications settings were correct and we were both on the same wifi. I have not delved into how long it may take for tags & the app to communicate but I can see it taking a few minutes, 10 or so being a possibility. I will update when I find out more.

What’s new

This update includes an improved background scanning for trackers. Trackers should be found more quickly this way.
Please reach out and give feedback these changes, so we can further improve.