Can I track my child or partner with an AirTag or app?

Draw the line by consent and power. Your own young child: parents may use proportionate location tools as part of parental responsibility — a watch or family app for a seven-year-old’s school route is defensible. Proportionality shrinks as children grow: covertly tracking a teenager is hard to justify (regulators and courts weigh the child’s own privacy, which the UN children’s-rights framework and DPA guidance treat as real), and openness beats surveillance — a tracked teen who knows is a negotiation, a tracked teen who finds out is a rupture. Your partner or any adult: no. Hidden AirTags in bags or cars, stalkerware on phones, silent location-sharing toggles — processing without a legal basis at best, criminal stalking or illegal interception at worst, and courts across Europe convict for it, especially in separation conflicts. Apple and Google ship anti-stalking alerts precisely because this is endemic; “finding” an unknown tracker notification on your phone is a red flag to act on, not dismiss. Elderly relatives with consent or diminished capacity: involve them to the extent possible, prefer the least intrusive tool, and document the care rationale — care homes doing this wholesale need a full GDPR basis. Being tracked yourself? Scan for unknown trackers (both ecosystems detect cross-platform now), check phone permissions and shared-location settings, and if a partner or ex is behind it, treat it as a safety issue first: document, then police — the doxxing guide lists the digital-safety moves.