Elevation Lab, writing on their company blog:

We launched an AirTag silencing tool recently. We have always made products we want for ourselves, and this was no different - we wanted it for AirTags on our bikes. (Some of us here have bikes more valuable than our cars.)

Unfortunately, “products we want for ourselves” and “bikes more valuable than our cars” are perhaps more telling of the Elevation Lab culture than I think they meant it to be.

Why would someone want a silent tracking device hidden on expensive gear? They understand why AirTags make noise: to identify them audibly when an item is out of sight, and to alert someone when an unknown AirTag is near them.

If you lose track of an item attached to an AirTag, Apple’s Find My network gets you in the vicinity. The chirps guide you to the item.

If a thief steals your bike, the “unknown AirTag” alert chirps and informs them the bike is being tracked.

Unstated but implied by the Elevation Lab team is they don’t want to alert a thief to the presence of an AirTag, lest it’s found and discarded, rendering their expensive bikes and other gear untraceable.

That may be the case, but were I a thief, the chirp of an AirTag emanating from some recently pilfered kit would cause me to abandon it immediately rather than waste time finding and disabling that AirTag. In addition to making items easy to find when stolen, AirTags can also act as a deterrent to them being stolen in the first place.

That suggests these folks were more interested in silently tracking their stolen bikes rather than preventing their bikes from being stolen in the first place. Why? Were they hoping to engage in a bit of vigilante justice?

Even if they weren’t and planned to call the police to direct them to the stolen goods, nothing is more convincing that the gear is yours than triggering an alarm from your iPhone.

In retrospect though, this also has the side effect of aiding someone with bad intentions to track someone that wouldn’t get phone notifications.

The backlash must have been tremendous. That, or a lawyer made a phone call to point out the obvious liability of having “someone with bad intentions” use their product to stalk, harass, or harm someone.

We have removed the product

Good.

and will use our patent on it to prevent anyone else from making one in the future.

What an odd detail to include. A patent means the silencing method is described in explicit detail—practically an instruction manual for how to create the product. A cynical and uncharitable person might suggest they mean for others to follow those instructions themselves.

Sincerely, Elevation Lab

I hope Elevation Lab takes a lesson here: always seek feedback from outside your own bubble.