Any iOS device will relay the AirTag’s beacons to iCloud—-not just your devices.

If you lose a tracked device, you can see its location if a random person’s Internet-enabled iDevice hears any of its chirps. The stranger’s device doing the relaying is unable to decrypt the contents; it just forwards the data to Apple.

hmm I don't think I would like my device should send data for others property (AirTag) becons to cloud?

Why should I spent my data cost to send beacons for someone else?

I hope it can be disabled.

Yeah I’m surprised more people aren’t mentioning this: I’m really not a fan of being an involuntary participant in Apple’s mesh network.

I guess I could monitor my Bluetooth status more often, but the Control Center toggle (intentionally) doesn’t turn it off entirely...

Yeah I find it really annoying that the toggle doesn't work like it should. I made a shortcut that will turn it off all the way.

Can you share how you did that? I've been trying to achieve that for both Bluetooth and Location Services (mini-rant: not adding a CC toggle for that is such a dark pattern) but haven't been able to pull it off.

The amount of data for all the possible AirTags you can encounter in a day is less than loading a single image on a modern web page.

If your data caps are THAT tight, you might consider a different provider.

The whole point of everyone's objections is that it also can be spotted by the wider network of all the other iPhones in the world, including whoever steals it (or is being stalked using it).