Over the last few days, reports out the US have been circulating about police warnings to parents emphasizing the need to close the NameDrop feature that Apple released in iOS17.1, citing security and privacy concerns.
The original messages shared by Police:
If you have an iPhone and have done the recent iOS 17 update, they have set a new feature called NameDrop defaulted to ON. This feature allows the sharing of your contact info just by bringing your phones close together. While you do need to accept the transfer, if you would prefer to shut this off go to: Settings, General, AirDrop, Bringing Devices Together. Change to OFF.
PARENTS: You may consider changing these settings after the update on your children’s phones, also, to help keep them safe as well!
Basically, what is being implied here is that NameDrop automatically shares your contact and information with anyone who brings their iPhone near to yours, which is totally misleading and untrue.
How does NameDrop work?
The new feature only works between two iPhone when they are unlocked, next to each other, and only after users tap “share” or “receive” on their phones to send email addresses and phone numbers with one another. Information will not flow by only placing an iPhone next to another. Furthermore, contact sharing will be terminated if the two smartphones are moved apart anytime during the process or locked using the power button.
If you want to turn off the feature, just navigate to Settings, then tap General and AirDrop.
