…placing at least seven AirTags on his ex-wife's car to surveil her.
Assuming the tags weren’t checking in with an owning device (iPhone) that car would’ve been beeping up a storm.
I recently lent a set of work keys to a colleague that I forgot had an AirTag on them, in their words: “fucking things beeped all weekend and my phone kept telling me I’m being followed!”
Unfortunately, yes. iPhones will check passively and Android phones can get an app but you have to check actively. Hopefully Apple and Google work on a solution for active detection on Android devices.
Not that I’m aware of, for the reasons you mentioned. I believe you can now share AirTag locations with family members and that’ll count towards ‘checking in’ and not beep but nothing for sharing with someone outside of family members.