Police Departments and News Sites Spreading Misinformation About How iOS 17 NameDrop Feature Works

[IG88]

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.

An acquaintance of mine (sister's bf) has 2 iPhones, work and personal. He says his work iPhone contacts were transferred to his personal iPhone without any user interaction.

Unfortunately I don't have the details at this time, like exact iPhone models and versions of iOS.

I realize this sounds fishy, and I would think we'd have more people coming forward, considering there are probably a lot of people with work / personal iPhones.

 

[VaruLV]

Name drop might be buggy as hell, someone I know name dropped from iPhone 12 Mini to 13 Pro and for some reason had their phone ID’s swapped where ones phone book, family sharing details, even own number would be that of the other phone.
They would also appear in other persons family sharing as a family member.

 

[BaldiMac]

An acquaintance of mine (sister's bf) has 2 iPhones, work and personal. He says his work iPhone contacts were transferred to his personal iPhone without any user interaction.

Unfortunately I don't have the details at this time, like exact iPhone models and versions of iOS.

I realize this sounds fishy, and I would think we'd have more people coming forward, considering there are probably a lot of people with work / personal iPhones.

Seems like there are four possibilities:
1. He uses the same iCloud account on both phones.
2. He added his work email account to his personal phone and chose to sync contacts.
3. He manually synced both phones with the same computer.
4. This didn't really happen.

 

[IG88]

Seems like there are four possibilities:
1. He uses the same iCloud account on both phones.
2. He added his work email account to his personal phone and chose to sync contacts.
3. He manually synced both phones with the same computer.
4. This didn't really happen.

You can rule out #4. I'm positive #3 didn't happen either. Possible but doubtful on #2.

#1 is the one I can't rule out yet. If he's using the same iCloud account on both, all bets are off.

 

[LarryBaker]

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.

Im in the same boat.. I turned it off on one of the phones, my work one in this case.. Because i find it helpful for my personal phone..

Im an engineer though, so I dont really have a need for it on my work one.. If i were in Sales, I might flip that around and have it enabled on my work, but not personal..

Hopefully in a future release, they can make it NOT pop if a contact card exists, or some other method so it doesnt alway pop up.

 

[woolypants]

I suspect Apple would say that that the best way for a single person to use two iPhones is to have them on the same AppleID and adjust the settings to turn things off that you don't want your employer to see.

One nice thing that Apple did with MDM is to plainly tell you the user what the MDM admin can see.

I don't believe a user can control MDM setups.

But yes, it does tell me what data my employer can see. But there are at least two issues with your statement.

1. MDM profiles tell me what my employer can see right now but who knows what Apple might/might not change in a future release of iOS. The phone doesn't belong to me, so I have no right to expect privacy.

2. Again, the phone is the property of my employer. I might go into the office one day and they could demand I give it to them, there and then. And my data will be on there. I doubt they ever would do this, but there are sure to be maybe 1% of employers would might pull a trick like this. Employers are weird, just like people. And some IT guys have... issues.

So, the only real-world solution that works is to have it on a separate iCloud account.

Somebody mentioned having an e-Sim for work. Again, this is a phone provided by my employer. Feels a lot like it's real-world vs little professors here.

 

[WilliApple]

A ton of people = 10 to 15 adults?

Like 20 high school friends.

 

[I7guy]

In theory it's elegant. But in reality, it has too many gotachas. Both have to have an iPhone. Both have to have Contact Posters set up. Possibly iCloud needs to be singned in, not sure about that though. So the likelyhood of it working when you need it is pretty low I would say.

There are over a billion iPhone users. And while there is some setup, like all new features there could be a learning curve.

If people want to use the feature they will make sure it’s setup as needed.

 

[james_b]

Wait, cops can type?

 

[papbot]

Rational coverage of this “issue”.

Analysis | NameDrop is safe. The fearmongering about it is not.

Local police have been warning about the safety of the NameDrop feature in iPhones to wirelessly share contact information. Don’t worry. They’re wrong.

www.washingtonpost.com

 

[ifxf]

Does it really unlock your phone when it is placed next to another ios device?

 

[ifxf]

I turned it off and it stays off.



It was in the news feed before but I use 5 phones and four different OS all at the same time. Master of none.



You can say this and that and I have to agree to share but the buggy nature of iOS 17 doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I never use AirDrop for example and will never use this - so it gets set to “off”.


The cops and all that, yes I see the argument there, but I find it refreshing that people don’t automatically trust big tech implicitly.

Don’t understand why Apple sticks AirDrop on all its share sheets with no ability to remove it. The only place where I use it is Photos and the rest of the places it is irritating.

 

[papbot]

Does it really unlock your phone when it is placed next to another ios device?

Both have to be unlocked first. So its only going to happen when you want it to.

 

[ifxf]

This is such BS. My local police department shared the same thing and I got in a big comment fight with people talking about it. Name Drop is an amazing feature that will kill business cards. I'm here for it

No it won’t since it doesn’t work with Android phones.

 

[brofkand]

You can end the yearly cycle any time you choose. No one forces you to buy a new phone. You can keep using the same phone for the rest of your life, if you choose. That doesn’t mean other people shouldn’t be able to upgrade their phones and get new features if they want to. It isn’t all about you.

Defensive I see. I was taking about the release cycle of software. Hardware is a different issue really.

 

[tranceme]

Man the number of people on twitter the last 2 days up in arms over this has been absolutely hilarious.

“Why didn’t Apple tell us” - they did. Read your release notes.

“This is a privacy invasion.” - you have to confirm it every time.

I forget what else I’ve read.

Twitter or X is a mess of misinformation and whining. You are so right. Part of me is curious how they even got to Twitter and posted something. They don't seem smart of enough to even use the service at times.

 

[papbot]

Twitter or X is a mess of misinformation and whining. You are so right. Part of me is curious how they even got to Twitter and posted something. They don't seem smart of enough to even use the service at times.

There are some who get up in the morning looking for something to trigger their anger, hysteria, and paranoia. Without that their lives would be meaningless. All of those types of people wind up on Twitter at some point.

 

[JordanCautious]

Sounds like yet another instance of boomers not understanding technology. I'm guessing this is where I pretend to be shocked that they have no idea what they are talking about?

 

[Makosuke]

Yet another to add to the file of "Publicly announced misinformation about innocuous thing is shared virally by people who regularly ignore things far worse without realizing or caring."

It's both amusing and depressing to me how people will go on Facebook and eagerly provide Meta with absolutely astounding amounts of personal data and control over what they know and think about--which Meta can and absolutely will exploit for profit in every way possible--then pick up on some tidbit of misinformation about privacy and pitch an absolute fit about it.

The'll share and freak out about a feature that can share contact details with a phone two inches away from theirs after both parties consent to the sharing using a platform that is logging every interaction they perform, scanning every personal photo they upload for recognizable faces to compare with countless other data points, and doing far more nefarious things with that information than someone ever would or could by getting your name, phone number, and email address (which was probably already exposed in a half dozen data leaks, likely along with the same password you use everywhere).

But of course you'll never see the police posting a public notice on Facebook that Facebook is gathering vast amounts of private data from you, and Instagram is predatorily gathering info and manipulating the online tastes of your children (as the lawsuit today proved), because "The criminals on the bus are coming for your phone number!" is so much easier to sell to clueless worriers who don't actually want to change their behavior, just feel like they're in control because they changed a setting.

 

[Fat_Guy]

For what it’s worth I could see someone running an exploit through the Apple servers. Of course I don't know anything about that as I’m a boomer that started programming in COBOL (but I was the original X in the beginning).


One other thing I noticed was about Apple and data, I believe they have your phone send them data every day do they not? Just something I read about years ago - maybe things have changed (probably not).

 

[CoMoMacUser]

Lol. Reminds me of Jenkem: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jenkem

 

[MacGod]

While I am glad we are raising it here, this is really a bit of fear-mongering from the police departments and privacy people.

First off - it simply is not as 'easily done' as all these social media posts are saying it is.
It doesn't AUTOMATICALLY SHARE your contact record with a stranger.
1. the devices both need to be unlocked
2. It prompts the user on each phone and each phone needs to INITIATE a transfer, meaning it isn't automatically done
3. Just like AIRDROP (Also on by default), the transfer has to be authorized and accepted

So... not as big a safety issue as everyone is making this out to be. There aren't roving gangs of child traffickers or pedophiles scouring the malls for your child's iPhone information. Would I turn this feature off on a child's phone? Yes, totally unnecessary feature for a adolescent or teen, and if your teen has smartphone to begin with, there are greater concerns than this - but don't believe the hysteria.

 

[Fat_Guy]

While I am glad we are raising it here, this is really a bit of fear-mongering from the police departments and privacy people.

First off - it simply is not as 'easily done' as all these social media posts are saying it is.
It doesn't AUTOMATICALLY SHARE your contact record with a stranger.
1. the devices both need to be unlocked
2. It prompts the user on each phone and each phone needs to INITIATE a transfer, meaning it isn't automatically done
3. Just like AIRDROP (Also on by default), the transfer has to be authorized and accepted

So... not as big a safety issue as everyone is making this out to be. There aren't roving gangs of child traffickers or pedophiles scouring the malls for your child's iPhone information. Would I turn this feature off on a child's phone? Yes, totally unnecessary feature for a adolescent or teen, and if your teen has smartphone to begin with, there are greater concerns than this - but don't believe the hysteria.

I seem to remember Apple pushing device side scanning for CSAM to “protect the children” and defending it almost to the end:


https://www.apple.com/child-safety/...s_for_Children_Frequently_Asked_Questions.pdf


Sorry we “privacy folk” made Apple see the error of their ways. Apple is all about privacy and choice… 🤣

 

[mikeschr]

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 the person mindlessly clicking Allow also isn't going to notice the stranger practically bringing an iPhone in contact with theirs?

 

[Doctor Q]

So the person mindlessly clicking Allow also isn't going to notice the stranger practically brining an iPhone in contact with theirs?

Some people do agree to pop-up messages without paying close attention. One way to lessen the chances of that would be to have a different look and feel to this type of sharing request, or to require more than one tap. Ultimately, however, people who agree to everything without thinking are going to get in a lot more trouble from malware websites, phishing emails, etc. and have more to worry about than sharing their email address with the person next to them.