BEWARE! If you have an iPhone and have done the recent iOS 17 update. They have set a new feature call NameDrop to default to ON. This allows the sharing of contact info AND YOUR PHOTOS!… just by bringing your phones close together…even with strangers. To shut this off go to Settings/General/Airdrop/Bringing Devices Together/Change to OFF.
I shut mine off.
Mark
Shellback
Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve shut mine off too…
This is a security issue and a poor design - I’m going to offer some feedback to them.
Shellback wrote:
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve shut mine off too…
This is a security issue and a poor design - I’m going to offer some feedback to them.
I doubt its accidental. Thanks for the response.
Mark
I apologize. the information I had received was not totally correct. I was trying to be helpful. I have received more information:
This is the most misunderstood technical issue I’ve seen in a long time.
This NameDrop feature is not really a security risk, and useful if you want to share your phone number or email address with another iPhone user relatively quickly.
It’s not broadcasting your private information around the room for a nefarious hacker to intercept.
Here’s a demonstration in 45 seconds.
https://youtu.be/aZL5D1k-4aI?si=x42_m-u9lzkr_FcKI trusts this clarifies the feature. I still have mine turned off.
Mark
Mine is set “for contacts only” I assume means in my contact list whom I trust.
One of the ways I judge how thick people are (and the sheer number of them) is by how often software developers set the wrong thing to be the default mode. It isn't maybe so bad as to how often the developer sets the wrong default but to add to that are all the people within that organization who leave it like that. This is one of the reasons why I think Microsoft is staffed almost entirely by imbeciles.
When you fire up a new piece of software there should be an option to select the 'developers defaults' or 'none'. I think you might be surprised how often the 'none' gets selected.
But thanks anyway, Mark. I still turned mine off since I am not into sharing stuff that way.
The feature is found as follows:
Go to your device's "Settings"
Scroll down and click on "General"
Look for "AirDrop"
Search for "Bringing Devices Together" and slide the feature off. This will disable NameDrop.
OS 17 is also bugging me to activate Apple Pay. I don't use Apple Pay, but on initial check it seems to be a way to use your phone to store your credit cards and to then pay wirelessly without swiping your card. There are various reasons why that is good. One being security, and other is that I always do have a card that does not read well in some stores . I'm not committing to this yet, but I must admit it looks tempting.
Mark Sturtevant wrote:
But thanks anyway, Mark. I still turned mine off since I am not into sharing stuff that way.
The feature is found as follows:
Go to your device's "Settings"
Scroll down and click on "General"
Look for "AirDrop"
Search for "Bringing Devices Together" and slide the feature off. This will disable NameDrop.
OS 17 is also bugging me to activate Apple Pay. I don't use Apple Pay, but on initial check it seems to be a way to use your phone to store your credit cards and to then pay wirelessly without swiping your card. There are various reasons why that is good. One being security, and other is that I always do have a card that does not read well in some stores . I'm not committing to this yet, but I must admit it looks tempting.
But thanks anyway, Mark. I still turned mine off s... (
show quote)
FYI: You don't need to set up or accept Apple Pay to be able to use Apple Wallet (store card info, etc.)
Thanks for the tip. I shut my off as well.
markngolf wrote:
I doubt its accidental. Thanks for the response.
Mark
I agree - while this might be a helpful feature for some (or even many) users, Apple took the skeevy approach of making it an "opt out" rather than an "opt in" function - meaning you need to be aware to go to thee settings and turn off this oh-so-wonderful sharing function...and that is likely why various police agencies have issued warnings.
Thanks for letting us know Mark. That's an aggressive over-reach on the part of Apple.
Mark, Thanks for the tip.......turning mine off immediately.
Indi
Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.
markngolf wrote:
BEWARE! If you have an iPhone and have done the recent iOS 17 update. They have set a new feature call NameDrop to default to ON. This allows the sharing of contact info AND YOUR PHOTOS!… just by bringing your phones close together…even with strangers. To shut this off go to Settings/General/Airdrop/Bringing Devices Together/Change to OFF.
I shut mine off.
Mark
Thanks Mark. Just changed our phones to off.
The tops of the phones have to be within an inch. You have to take steps during the process to confirm it’s what you want to do. You can set it for only people in your Contacts or to receive data and not send yours. It’s a convenience for people who are always exchanging business cards. I don’t see it as a threat.
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