Elevation Lab kills AirTag silencer and will use its patent to stop anyone else building one
An Apology
Elevation Lab has pulled its AirTag silencing tool after realizing it could help stalkers track victims who wouldn't get phone alerts. The company, which originally built the device for its own bikes, says it will now wield its patent to prevent competitors from making similar products.
In retrospect though, this also has the side effect of aiding someone with bad intentions to track someone that wouldn’t get phone notifications.
- jubilanti
Tracking the person who stole your bike IS stalking, just a socially acceptable form. That's the point.
- Barbing
Photo of the device on MacRumors (who intentionally didn’t publicize its release): https://macrumors.com/2026/10/13/elevation-lab-airtag-silenc...
- Johnny555
We have removed the product and will use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future.
Doesn't the patent just document how it works so individuals can create and release 3D models of the device so anyone can create their own?
- bob1029
> We have removed the product and will use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future.
I am not sure I follow the unique technological aspects of this solution. The last time I needed to silence a beeping contraption, I broke out the cordless drill and ran it through the offending PCB element. Air tags seem affordable enough to practice this operation a few times. Not sure what is actually protected here.
- orliesaurus
What's the best thing to track bike thieves these days? I own 6 bikes (yes one for each type of road I ride ..) and I have never found a good solution?
- amelius
> and will use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future
What prevents anyone from selling a device but distributing the software through a separate channel?
- serf
I don't want weaponization of patents regardless of how much "Think of the Children!" and "We must defend the public!" is injected.
white knight with a sword made of patent lawsuits doesn't exist in my world.
It was good of them to decide to stay away from producing the product they realized they didn't want to exist, they should have stopped there instead of villainizing themselves by self-deputizing.
- Perenti
The "read more" link points to the same page. There is no more to read apparently. Why does this seem suspicious?