We recently did a housesit where one of the dogs wore an AirTag on its collar.
I completely understand why owners might want that extra reassurance, particularly if they have a dog that’s prone to wandering off or escaping.
However, it did make me wonder about things from the housesitter’s perspective. The AirTag goes wherever the dog goes, so presumably the owner can also see where we’ve taken the dogs on their walks and potentially get an idea of how long we’ve been out.
I’m certainly not suggesting that owners are necessarily checking up on us, but it did make me think about the privacy aspect and whether sitters should be made aware of this.
Has anyone else looked after dogs wearing AirTags? What are your thoughts? Do you see it purely as a safety measure, or does it raise any questions about privacy and trust between homeowners and sitters?
I’d be interested to hear other sitters’ opinions on this one!
Apple AirTags can tell you last location or current real time location. Location history is no longer available (it used to be) specifically because of the AirTag’s anti-tracking features. Lack of tracking makes AirTags terrible devices for “spying” on sitters but they are useful for finding where things (including pets) are in the moment.
Android Tiles are a computing device that does provide location tracking if you pay a monthly subscription fee.
Of course, there are pet GPS trackers and health monitors that are useful for tracking current and past movements. Those devices are useful for “spying” on sitter’s dog walking and transport. Hosts who put GPS trackers on their dogs have often had a past experience motivating that choice. Or they’ve read an account (like Maverick’s tragic story) that motivated them.
Dog owners should, of course, disclose their use of a GPS tracker on their pets in their profile and during the matching conversations.
We have done sits where dogs have Airtags or trackers. While this may not have been mentioned in the listing, all the hosts were very upfront about it in the video call or meeting. In every case, there was a very good reason for the device - the dog was a known escape artist and could potentially either escape from the garden or disappear during a walk. In every case, the host shared the device with us, so that we could also track the dog in the event of an issue. The hosts who used Airtags even bought the Android equivalent as we all have android phones. These trackers were for our benefit during the sit as much as for the host.
Hosts trust us with their home and pets and I trust them unless they were to give us a reason not to. Yes, some of them could have potentially used the tracker to see where we walked. If they did, we were not aware of this and it had no impact on us. Or maybe they forgot all about it and enjoyed their holiday!
