Police from New Jersey to California have been sounding the alarm in recent days about NameDrop, a new feature in the Apple iPhone’s latest operating system that allows users to exchange contact information wirelessly.
Apple declined to comment, but experts warned that “scammers and thieves” could abuse the feature to collect users’ personal information. Exaggerated, if not completely unfounded.
First, the devices must be physically touching for NameDrop to work, and both users must agree to share their information.
Mark Bartholomew, a law professor specializing in cyber law at the University at Buffalo, said NameDrop provides enough stopgap protection to prevent someone’s information from being stolen.
“As far as the panic about taking contact information without consent, I’m not really concerned,” he said.
Here’s what you need to know:
How does NameDrop work?
To use this feature, Apple users must update their devices to the latest version of the operating system (iOS 17.1 for iPhone and watchOS 10.1 for Apple Watch). Both have this feature enabled as a default setting.
The user holds one device within a few centimeters of the other until NameDrop appears on both screens. Contact details can then be exchanged, or one party can simply receive contact information from the other without hearing back. The exchange can be canceled by pulling away the device or locking the screen before the transfer is complete.
NameDrop works similarly to AirDrop, allowing Apple laptop, iPhone, and iPad users to exchange photos as long as they’re within Bluetooth and Wi-Fi range. However, in the early days, some people misused this feature to harass unsuspecting strangers with explicit images, and others used NameDrop to send unwanted information or do so without their consent. It appears to be much more difficult, if not impossible, to collect personal information.
Even if someone has NameDrop enabled on their iPhone, the phone must be close to touching another device for the feature to work, and both users must consent to sharing. Still, the only information shared is the details users add to their contact cards.
What are the police saying?
Warnings are primarily shared on Facebook and follow a similar format. According to the alert, NameDrop allows you to share information between mobile phones in close contact. Police say young people are particularly at risk and are urging parents to disable the feature on their children’s phones as well as their own.
Not all warnings lack nuance. For example, police in South Bend, Indiana, described this feature as follows: in post It was intended to distinguish purported “rumors” from “facts.”
Regarding the rumor that enabling NameDrop “will allow you to capture contact information just by walking by,” the bureau said devices will need to be spaced a few centimeters apart and users will need to tap “Share” to exchange information. He explained that there is.
Contact sharing functionality is not new.
Wireless methods for sharing contacts between mobile devices have been around for years. For example, digital business cards are becoming increasingly popular as a networking tool.
Like NameDrop, the card uses Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that allows short-range data transmission between devices. (You can also scan and share the QR code.)
Unlike NameDrop, Digital Business Cards works on any mobile device, not just those running Apple’s iOS software.
Google once included a feature in its mobile operating system called “Android Beam,” which allows users to tap the backs of two phones to retrieve contacts, photos, maps, links, and other information. can now be shared.Some of his Android users were angry that they had been kept quiet Discontinued in 2019. Google replaced it with the following app Neighborhood share.
Disabling NameDrop is easy.
The new iOS 17.1 automatically enabled NameDrop as a default setting, so some iPhone users who updated their devices may not even know it was there.
If you want to turn it off, the steps are simple. Go to your iPhone’s settings, tap “General” and select “Airdrop.” Then, toggle off the “Device Integration” option.
Bartholomew, a professor at the University at Buffalo, said that even though privacy concerns about NameDrop are largely unfounded, it may be helpful to be skeptical about emerging technologies.
“Very often we see new technologies and exchange information without thinking about the trade-offs,” he said. When new features are introduced, “we need to be cautious before adopting them,” he added.