Police Warn Parents: Beware of iPhone’s New ‘NameDrop’ Feature

According to the Epoch Times, multiple U.S. police departments issued alerts about a new iPhone feature that allows sharing contact info and images wirelessly between two closely held devices, warning it could put children and other vulnerable individuals at risk.

“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,” the Middletown Division of Police, Ohio, said in a Nov. 26 Facebook post. “PARENTS: Don’t forget to change these settings on your child’s phone to help keep them safe as well!”

“With this feature enabled, anyone can place their phone next to yours (or your child’s phone) and automatically receive their contact information to include their picture, phone number, email address, and more, with a tap of your unlocked screen,” the Watertown CT Police Department, Connecticut, said in another post.

Disable the NameDrop feature on the phone of anyone in your family who has an iPhone. The automatically active feature, easily exploited by predators, can be turned off in settings.

According to the Epoch Times,The NameDrop option, turned on by default, can be disabled by following these steps:

• Open the “Settings” option
• Tap the “General” option
• Tap the “AirDrop” tab, which controls the file-sharing features of the phone
• Once AirDrop is selected, turn off the “Bringing Devices Together” option to disable NameDrop.

Stay safe!