Your AirPods Can Now Identify You to Police. Yes, Really.

The device on your wrist and in your ears was never built to be a tracking beacon. Now it might be one anyway.

I need you to sit with this one for a second, because when I first heard about it, I honestly had to read it twice.

There is now a technology that can identify you; not your car, not your license plate, you, through the Bluetooth signal coming off your AirPods. Your Apple Watch. Your fitness tracker. The wireless devices sitting on your body right now, quietly broadcasting, the way they were designed to do so your phone can pair with them.

Someone figured out how to turn that convenience feature into a surveillance tool.

And it's already being marketed to police departments across the United States.

This is the Virtuous Machine question in its purest form. Not "what does this device do for me"? Every single device we own answers that question beautifully. The question that actually matters is: what else can this device be made to do, by someone who was never supposed to have access to it in the first place?

Let's talk about SignalTrace.

What Is SignalTrace, and Who Built It?

The company is called Leonardo, specifically, Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions. And the product is called SignalTrace.

Here's how the company itself describes what it does. SignalTrace is designed to "identify people of interest by the signals emitted from their electronic devices they travel with, such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, RFID tags, and local signals from their mobile phones".

Read that again. Not vehicles. People.

The system pulls in Bluetooth signals, Wi-Fi signals, and RFID tags, then cross-references that information with license plate data already being collected by automated license plate reader cameras, the same category of camera network operated by companies like Flock Safety, which I've written about extensively on this platform.

This isn't a hypothetical add-on either. It's designed to plug directly into the existing infrastructure already installed on roads across the country.

How It Actually Works And Why That Should Alarm You

SignalTrace doesn't just grab a signal and move on. It categorizes the signal by device type and links it to a profile. It can flag when two specific devices are consistently spotted traveling together.

According to Leonardo's own marketing language; this can lead to the discovery of convoys and other movement and travel patterns.

Think about what that actually means in practice. It means the system isn't just asking "where is this car"? It's asking; "who is this person, who do they travel with, where do they go together, and how often"?

That is a profile of your relationships. Your routines. Your associations. Built passively, without your knowledge, using devices you paid for and wear because they make your life easier.

Is This Already Happening in the United States?

Here's where I want to be precise, because accuracy matters more than alarm.

As of the most recent reporting, no state has yet confirmed a purchase of this specific upgraded SignalTrace configuration. That's genuinely important information, and I don't want to overstate where things stand.

But here's the part that should still concern you. Leonardo is not a new player in this space. The underlying technology was previously marketed under a different name, Elsag EOC Plug, and the company states that earlier versions of this system have already been deployed by close to 4,000 customers across more than 25 countries, largely through local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

So the infrastructure is already there. The company already has relationships with thousands of agencies. The only new piece is the specific device-tracking upgrade, and that upgrade is being actively marketed right now.

One more detail you need to know. Leonardo's public materials claim the company respects individual privacy and doesn't decrypt the content of the devices it detects. But nowhere in their published materials is there any mention of a warrant requirement before this data is accessed or used by law enforcement.

No warrant requirement. Let that sit with you.

This Is Exactly What Authoritarian Systems Do, Just With Better Marketing

I've written before about how surveillance infrastructure doesn't announce itself with tanks in the street. It arrives through procurement forms and public safety language. This is a perfect case study.

North Korea already requires citizens to install government surveillance software directly onto their phones — an app called Kwangmyong that lets the state monitor activity and location in real time. Investigations into smuggled North Korean phones have found devices that automatically screenshot the screen every five minutes and store those images in a folder only government officials can access.

Russia operates a system called SORM, which gives its security services direct access to telecom infrastructure. In a major 2026 update, Russian telecom operators are now required to collect device identifiers, geographic coordinates, and usernames, and link all of it together specifically so the state can "quickly establish links between individuals, devices, networks, accounts and online activity".

Read that phrase again; quickly establish links between individuals, devices, networks, accounts and online activity.

Now go back and reread what SignalTrace does.

I am not telling you that America is North Korea or Russia. It is not, and comparisons like that lose credibility fast when they're overstated. What I am telling you is that the underlying logic; identify a person through their devices, link them to other people, map their patterns, doing so without a warrant; is precisely the same logic those regimes use to monitor their populations. The tools don't need to look identical to serve the identical function.

That is not a coincidence. That is what mass surveillance infrastructure always looks like in its early stages, regardless of what country builds it.

Why This Matters Even If You "Have Nothing to Hide"

I want to address this directly, because I know someone reading this is thinking it.

This was never about whether you personally have something to hide. It's about whether a system exists that can be used against anyone, without oversight, without a warrant, and without the public ever being told it's happening.

Every protection we have ever had against government overreach exists because someone, at some point, insisted on it before the technology was already everywhere. Once a system like this is fully deployed and normalized, it becomes almost impossible to walk back. Ask the cities that tried to cancel their Flock contracts and got sued for breach of contract. Ask the ones that resorted to literally covering their own government cameras with garbage bags because that was easier than escaping the deal they'd already signed.

This is the moment to ask hard questions. Not after it's already standard equipment on every ALPR camera in the country.

What You Can Actually Do Right Now

I refuse to leave you with nothing but alarm. Here is where your voice actually matters.

Contact your representatives directly:

• In the U.S., find your Senator or Representative at congress.gov and ask them directly whether they support requiring a warrant before Bluetooth or Wi-Fi device-tracking data can be accessed by law enforcement

• Ask your state legislature whether any agency in your state has purchased or is considering purchasing SignalTrace or similar device-identification technology

Get informed through organizations already fighting this:

• The ACLU has an active surveillance technology project tracking ALPR abuse, government purchases of tracking tools, and pending legislation visit: aclu.org/issues/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) maintains a public Atlas of Surveillance that documents exactly which surveillance technologies are deployed by which police departments across the U.S., check your area at atlasofsurveillance.org

• EFF also provides direct guidance on your rights regarding device tracking and how to push back locally at eff.org/issues/street-level-surveillance

Push for transparency locally:

• File a public records request with your city or county asking whether any ALPR vendor contract includes device-identification or Bluetooth/Wi-Fi tracking capabilities

• Attend city council meetings when surveillance contracts come up for renewal or approval; public comment periods exist specifically so citizens can be heard before contracts are signed

• Support local journalists and watchdog organizations investigating these purchases; public pressure is often what forces vendors and agencies to disclose what they've bought

Talk about it. Loudly.

Most people have never heard the word SignalTrace. Most people have no idea their AirPods could theoretically become part of a surveillance profile. That knowledge gap is exactly what allows this kind of technology to spread quietly. Share this post. Talk to your family. Bring it up at your next community meeting.

The Virtuous Machine Point

Every device I've mentioned in this post; your iPhone, your AirPods, your Apple Watch, was built to serve you. That was the entire premise. Convenience, connection, health tracking, communication.

Nobody who bought those devices agreed to also carry a tracking beacon for a law enforcement contractor.

That's the trick with the Virtuous Machine every single time. The tool is never marketed as surveillance. It's marketed as safety, convenience, public protection. And by the time people understand what it can actually be used for, the infrastructure is already installed, the contracts are already signed, and reversing course requires a fight nobody wanted to have.

We still have a window here. SignalTrace is new. Deployment isn't confirmed yet in any state. That means the conversation about warrants, oversight, and transparency needs to happen now, not after the fact.

Demand transparency. Demand a warrant requirement. Demand that the agencies serving your community tell you exactly what technology they're buying and why.

You are not paranoid for asking these questions. You are doing exactly what a functioning democracy requires of its citizens.

Before You Go

I want to know what you think.

Does this change how you think about the devices you wear every day? Have you checked whether your local police department has purchased ALPR technology, and do you know what it's capable of?

Drop it in the comments. And if this is the first time you're hearing the word SignalTrace, share this post with someone else who needs to hear it too. Awareness is the very first line of defense we have here.

Stay sharp. Stay loud.

➡️ Related: [An AI Just Broke Into the NSA. And Nobody's Talking About What That Actually Means.] 

➡️ Related: [Your iPhone Is Watching. Even When You Tell It Not To.] 

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Michael Routhier is the founder of Tech 4 Grown-Ups, a platform dedicated to honest, unfiltered digital literacy for adults 55 and over. The Virtuous Machine is a series exploring the ethics, power, and human cost of artificial intelligence. Find everything at tech4grownups.com.