I turned it off because as someone using two iPhone, this has gotten somewhat annoying each time you hold those phones together in one hand
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Police Departments and News Sites Spreading Misinformation About How iOS 17 NameDrop Feature Works
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That’s taken care of by Goggle being the default search engine on a phone that Apple says is all about privacy. Sure you can change it in settings but nobody does. How many that responded here have changed it? I did to duckduckgo - but then - I’m the luddite…
Why did Apple do this? Oh yes, that 20 or 26 billion dollars Google pays Apple each year. AI will probably be on by default next year…
The options are “Contacts Only” and “Always Ask”. How’s that going to share your contact and photo with a “random” person?
Never use it. Well once at Christmas as the kids wanted to send me some photos.
I’m a privacy advocate because I have something to hide - it’s called “My Privacy!”
People get more stupid everyday.
Apple with iOS 17.1 and watchOS 10.1 introduced a new NameDrop feature that is designed to allow users to place Apple devices near one another to quickly exchange contact information. Sharing contact information is done with explicit user permission, but some news organizations and police departments have been spreading misinformation about how functions.
As noted by The Washington Post, there have been warnings about NameDrop popping up on FaceTime. Police departments in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Ohio, and other states have been suggesting that contact information can be shared "just by bringing your phones close together." From the City of Chester Police Department in Ohio:
While it's true that NameDrop is turned on by default, the way that it functions is more nuanced than simply putting two iPhones near each other.
NameDrop works when two iPhones running iOS 17.1 or an iPhone with iOS 17.1 and an Apple Watch running watchOS 10.1 are placed right next to each other, as in almost touching. When the two devices come in close contact and both are unlocked, there is a pop up prompting users to share contact information or an image.
Contact information is not shared automatically, and it is a user-initiated process that requires both people exchanging information to accept the transfer. While an accidental exchange could occur, it would require a user to unlock their device and accept the sharing prompt for that to occur.
Multiple police departments posted the warning above, which was widely shared on Facebook and other social networks. The message from the Noble County Sheriff's Office in Ohio, for example, got upwards of 70,000 shares, while the Dewey Police Department in Pennsylvania's warning was shared 11,000 times. After criticism from some commenters, Noble County edited its message to clarify that there's a popup to transfer content, and Dewey County said that it was attempting to "get parents engaged with their children," but many people who saw the original post may not see the updates.
Several local news stories have also shared similar questionable NameDrop information. KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, for example, interviewed several people and included quotes suggesting NameDrop happens automatically.
If anything, NameDrop has the potential to be more irritating than dangerous, simply because it's likely to activate when your phone is next to someone else's and unlocked, in a situation like a dinner or meeting. Given the negative feedback, Apple may in a future update turn NameDrop off by default, but those who want to disable it now can do so by opening up the Settings app, going to AirDrop, and turning off "Bringing Devices Together."
Article Link: Police Departments and News Sites Spreading Misinformation About How iOS 17 NameDrop Feature Works
Unbelievable that only a few can obviously think for themselves.
I've two iPhones – one personal, one provided by my employer.
Obviously, I often hold them in the same hand when going somewhere. And they start to do name drop. Animations, sound effects, screens showing my contact photo and a confirmation request. Utterly, utterly dumb.
The two phones use two different iCloud accounts because, obviously, I don't want my employer syncing my personal data. I tried linking the two contact cards to stop this, but it hasn't fixed it.
I don't want to turn this feature off because it's useful. But my god, Apple's engineers need to think these things through better.
Obviously, I often hold them in the same hand when going somewhere. And they start to do name drop. Animations, sound effects, screens showing my contact photo and a confirmation request. Utterly, utterly dumb.
The two phones use two different iCloud accounts because, obviously, I don't want my employer syncing my personal data. I tried linking the two contact cards to stop this, but it hasn't fixed it.
I don't want to turn this feature off because it's useful. But my god, Apple's engineers need to think these things through better.
This is concerning. How many folks actually read the pop ups before clicking “allow” so they can get back to mindlessly scrolling tiktok or whatever. Just a numbers game to see when you can get a name and number of a target.
So you have never airdrop files from your phone to your Mac or vice versa?
as a talented data thief i can confirm that walking up to someone on the street and rubbing my phone on their pants pocket is the most effective way to steal their most precious data (i.e. name and phone number and a little picture of them). we haven’t yet developed more effective methods unfortunately. :/
Hackers could get your information through a loose government database or your telephone carrier's database or 100 other places. NameDrop is just the latest, but selected way.
The question that people should be asking is 'what does the pop up box look like' that is asking you if you want to share Namedrop. Does the popup actually identify itself as being from Namedrop and that it is asking if you agree to share your info? or is the popup a non descript one which users could mistake for being something else and therefore accept it by mistake?
If it is not made absolutely clear to the iphone user what they are being asked to agree to then yes the police are correct in their assumptions of the app and thus are correct in their warnings.
If it is not made absolutely clear to the iphone user what they are being asked to agree to then yes the police are correct in their assumptions of the app and thus are correct in their warnings.
Agree completely with this. It becomes a non-issue, regardless of inaccurate reporting, if it’s defaulted to off.
"Do you have an iPhone?"
"Android"
"Pity. Ok, bye."
Stupid features are stupid features. Either this feature is cross-platform or it's a silly feature. Like Matter and Qi2, this feature needs a solution that works across all phones or it's not worth using. You should only have to ask, "do you want to share contacts?" You should never have to ask what their phone is. Doing so is forward and rude. I would go so far as to say there needs to be a seamless cross-platform industry standard feature for in-person sharing of local photos, local videos and personal contacts. AirDrop Matter, if you will. Like with phone numbers or e-mail address, you should not have to ask what phone or email client they use—it just works®. "Can I have your contact details?" ... "Will you shoot me over that video?" ... "Send me those holidays photos you took, would you?" Twenty seconds later, done.
"Android"
"Pity. Ok, bye."
Stupid features are stupid features. Either this feature is cross-platform or it's a silly feature. Like Matter and Qi2, this feature needs a solution that works across all phones or it's not worth using. You should only have to ask, "do you want to share contacts?" You should never have to ask what their phone is. Doing so is forward and rude. I would go so far as to say there needs to be a seamless cross-platform industry standard feature for in-person sharing of local photos, local videos and personal contacts. AirDrop Matter, if you will. Like with phone numbers or e-mail address, you should not have to ask what phone or email client they use—it just works®. "Can I have your contact details?" ... "Will you shoot me over that video?" ... "Send me those holidays photos you took, would you?" Twenty seconds later, done.
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That is correct.
I only use Apple products for wearables like the iPhone, AirPods and the Apple Watch.
For laptops and PCs it is Dell and Lenovo business class. I have four laptops and five PCs. Windows and Linux.
I don’t have to put tape over my lid camera as those business products don’t have them installed. 🤣 Mics are disabled or were never installed. I go places where this is necessary.
Elon Musk is the only one of the active big tech giants to use a Mac and prefer to use it - if you guys were interested. Most business people I know are all Windows products.
again with misinformation this is only enabled by default to your contacts. it is impossible to enable this for everyone.
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my take on this post is that this is something that started as Facebook misinformation worm, and police departments have someone on staff whose full time job (probably paying over $100k/yr) is to sit on Facebook and interact with the shut-ins of their community in an echo chamber of misinformation. One PD posted this, others copied without doing any research, and here we are. Now think about how that works in election times.
yes. it's very popular with socializers. and people very often update their iOS for just one feature, because a friend said "oh did you update? you can do this now"
Well I did turn this feature off after my phone wanted to NameDrop with my moms iPhone which is weird because she already has my contact information 😂🤣
And spread by Android users who think they know everything about Apple devices without ever having used one.
NamEDroP is DaNGerOUs… DroPGate! ApplE Is EVil! StEvE APpLe would roll Over In HIs Grave.
🤦♂️
I tried this with my spouse. It just brings up the contact card. No changes that we could see.