Ohio Bill Takes on AirTag Stalking

Ohio has proposed a new bill that would outlaw the use of electronic tracking devices made by Apple, Tile, and other companies to monitor someone else’s location without their consent.

WKYC reports(Opens in a new window) that House Bill 672 was introduced after it discovered that stalkers could abuse loopholes in Ohio law to legally track people with products like the AirTag, which debuted in April 2021, as long as they hadn’t been accused of domestic violence or stalking in the past .

HB 672 would close that loophole by declaring that “no person shall knowingly install a tracking device or tracking application on another person’s property without the other person’s consent,” according to a copy of the bill(Opens in a new window) that WKYC uploaded to the Scribd document sharing platform.

The bill carves out exceptions for law enforcement officials installing tracking devices as part of a criminal investigation, parents monitoring their minor children, and caregivers keeping track of elderly adults. But even those exceptions have provisions designed to prevent their abuse.

If this bill passes, Ohio would join 19 other states in banning the use of tracking devices to facilitate stalking behavior, WKYC reports. Hopefully the rest of the nation will follow as these gadgets become increasingly popular among general consumers and criminals alike.