PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A number of local police departments have sent out a privacy warning about Apple‘s latest iOS 17 update for iPhones. The update includes a feature that allows for contact information to easily be shared called “NameDrop.”
NameDrop allows you to share your contact information just by bringing your phones close together.
CBS News Philadelphia spoke with a tech and cyber security expert about how the feature can be particularly dangerous for children.
“If a stranger walks by your child and gets their contact information,” Alan Crowetz, with InfoStream, said, “They have their email and we’ve seen how the bad guys, the pedophiles and whatnot really take advantage of email, phone number for texting — they really take advantage of that. And God forbid they decided to use the home address to visit or stalk even deeper. From a cybersecurity point, this is a major red flag.”
iPhone users can turn the feature off by going into their settings menu, selecting general, then Airdrop. There, the user will see “Bringing Devices Together,” and that is where they can change it to off.
Crowetz added that parents should do the same for their phones to also protect their information.
