Is Apple’s Namedrop Feature in OS 17 Dangerous?

The Sky is Falling – The Sky is Falling  – Apples NameDrop feature in iOS 17 is experiencing a bit of a viral moment. Your iPhone automatically turns on NameDrop with the latest software update. Across the US, police departments are warning adults to turn off the contact sharing feature on their iPhones and their childrens devices. There’s also a widely shared TikTok video with over 2 million views that describe how the feature lets strangers at the gym or on a bus steal all your information. The catch? It’s not true. You shouldn’t worry about NameDrop being some huge security risk.

I’m all about security and helping folks stay safe online no matter what device they choose to use. I believe all the warnings about NameDrop to be incorrect. One of the “warning” goes like this:

“BEWARE! If you have an iPhone and have done the recent iOS 17 update. They have set a new feature called NameDrop to default ON. This allows the sharing of contact info just by bringing your phones close together.”

Let’s take a look at how this feature actually works. When you encounter another iPhone user who you want to share your contact info with, simply place your iPhone directly above the other person’s iPhone. The two devices typically have to be really close together for this to work – almost touching one another in fact.

Once the phones have recognized one another a message will pop up on both phones asking each person if they want to:

1. a) just receive the other party’s contact info
2. b) receive the other party’s info and share your info with them as well.

No action is taken and no info is ever shared unless and until you choose one of those options. No exchange of information takes place automatically.

If somehow the NameDrop feature gets activated accidentally (which is extremely unlikely since the phones have to be so close together), all you have to do is move the phones away from each other and the entire process is canceled.

In short, NameDrop will not share your info with another iPhone user without your explicit permission (which you give by selecting one the two options mentioned above).

Another important point is not all of your personal info is exchanged every time. You’ll have the opportunity to either share or keep secret any or all of your personal info. If you want to share just your name and phone number, you can.

You might be wondering why you would want to have NameDrop enabled in the first place. Most iPhone users don’t really need it and will never use it. For those folks I recommend turning the NameDrop feature off in settings (more on that below).

However, there are situations in which NameDrop can come in pretty handy. For example, let’s say you’re at a trade show, a family reunion, a class reunion or some other place where you’re sure to meet or see several people you’ll want to keep in touch with in the future. NameDrop will make it quick and easy to exchange contact info.

In my opinion the best course of action is to disable NameDrop for everyday use of your iPhone and only enable it during the rare times when you might need it. You can then disable it again after the event is over.

Fortunately, disabling NameDrop is easy. Just follow these 4 steps:

1 – Tap your phone’s gear-shaped Settings icon.

2 – Tap General.

3 – Tap AirDrop.

4 – Toggle the “Bring Devices Together” option to Off.

That’s all there is to disabling NameDrop on your iPhone. To re-enable it simply repeat the steps above and turn NameDrop back On in step 4.

One thing to keep in mind is that disabling this feature disables NameDrop as well as the ability to share things like photos and videos by tapping two iPhones together. As of iOS 17.2, there is not a separate toggle for NameDrop. Instead, it’s just one toggle for the “Bringing Devices Together” feature for AirDrop.

Thanks to 9 to 5 MAC and Ricks Tech Tips for information used in this post.

https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/27/ios-17-namedrop-iphone-feature/

https://rickstechtips.substack.com/p/is-the-iphones-namedrop-feature-dangerous?r=m8g1n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email