Police departments and Facebook pages of all kinds are currently sharing a warning that we do feel iPhone users should be concerned with.
The feature is called NameDrop and it makes contact sharing a little too easy.
A Bluetooth connection between the two devices prompts NameDrop – and eliminates the need to type in their details manually, saving time.
This excerpt is from Jonathan Chadwick. Read the full article here
NameDrop – which also works between an iPhone and an Apple Watch – is part of Apple’s new iOS 17 software update, which was announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week.
However, iOS 17 won’t be released until autumn to coincide with the tech giant’s next smartphone, the iPhone 15.
Apple has released a short animation showing how the NameDrop feature works between two iPhone users, which is a bit like swapping business cards.
Once the two devices come together and the Bluetooth connection is established, each phone brings up their ‘contact poster’ – a display showing a photo of their own face, their name and their phone number.
Users have the option to click ‘Share’ in order to share their contact poster (and in turn their personal details) with the other person, or ‘Receive Only’ if they only want to receive the other’s contact poster.
However, it just works between two Apple devices, meaning you’ll still have to trade numbers the old fashioned way if you or the other person has an Android phone.
From Sidney Police Department
Sidney residents, the Sidney Police Department has been made aware of a important privacy concern that we would like to pass on to our community.
If you have an iPhone and have done the recent iOS 17 update, they’ve installed a feature called NameDrop. This feature allows you to easily share contact information and photos to another iPhone by just holding the phones close together. This feature is defaulted to ‘ON’. To shut this feature off, go to Settings, General, AirDrop, Bringing Devices Together and change to ‘OFF’.
PARENTS: Don’t forget to change these settings on your child’s phone to help keep them safe as well!
*Thank you to the Lincoln Sheriffs Department for sharing this information.
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