Can a stranger covertly get your child’s personal data by placing an iPhone near your kid’s phone?
Apple’s new NameDrop iPhone feature allows users to quickly share contact information with their phones. But social media warnings — many from U.S. law enforcement agencies — are stoking privacy fears among parents.
“Stay alert,” one Nov. 30 Instagram post warned. “The new iPhone update automatically enables ‘NameDrop.’ If anyone places their iPhone near your iPhone or child’s iPhone, it will automatically receive their contact information including a photo, phone number, email, address, and more.”
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
We found multiple social media posts making similar claims. They may be echoing recent social media warnings from U.S. police departments, as well as news reports about those warnings.
(Facebook screenshots)
A Connecticut police department issued a “tech alert” in a Nov. 26 Facebook post.
“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 post said.
Law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Virginia, Florida and more states have issued similar warnings. One police department in Pennsylvania had such a warning, but has since deleted it.
Many of the posts overstate the risks from the NameDrop feature and do not accurately reflect how it works, experts said.
This Apple video explains how the NameDrop feature works. (Apple via YouTube)
What is NameDrop and how does it work?
NameDrop was introduced this summer with Apple’s iOS17 update. In a June 5 press release, Apple said “a user can hold their iPhone near another to share their contact information with only their intended recipients. Users can also choose the specific contact details they want to share — and, importantly, what information they don’t want to share.”
NameDrop is part of Apple’s existing AirDrop feature, which lets users send photos, videos and more to nearby Apple devices.
The NameDrop technology also works with Apple Watch models that use watchOS 10.1.
Getting someone’s contact information isn’t as simple as putting two phones near each other, though. A user must take actions to share their contact information and their phone must be unlocked.
“It was wrongly reported that iPhones would send the information automatically. Physical interaction with the device — pressing an approve button — is required,” said Johannes Ullrich, dean of research for SANS Technology Institute, an accredited college established by the SANS Institute, a company that specializes in information security and cybersecurity.
Apple’s iPhone user guide explains how NameDrop works:
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To share contact information between two phones, hold the display of your iPhone a few centimeters from the top of the other iphone. Both phones will vibrate and glow when a connection is made.
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Keep holding the phones there until NameDrop appears on both screens.
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Each user can then choose what contact information to share and receive the other person’s, or to receive only the other person’s.
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To cancel, simply move the phones apart or lock your iPhone before the NameDrop transfer completes.
The option to share or receive also goes away if you swipe the screen up, according to a demonstration shared on YouTube by ZolloTech, a technology review website.
“This process necessitates a deliberate and noticeable action, as the phones glow when data is being shared, making it highly improbable for the transfer to occur from a distance of more than a few centimeters,” said Rob Lee, the chief curriculum director and faculty lead at SANS Institute.
Lee said if a phone is left open and unlocked and out of reach, it is vulnerable to typical data exposure risks, including contact sharing.
“However, this type of data transfer cannot be executed by merely passing by,” Lee said.
People with concerns about NameDrop, which is enabled by default in iOS17, can simply turn it off in their iPhone settings. In your iPhone’s settings, go to General, then select “Airdrop,” then turn off the “Bringing Devices Together” option.
Parents and guardians of children who have phones with this capability should go over the feature with their children so that they understand how to use it.
Our ruling
An Instagram post warned that your child’s contact information could be given to a stranger if their iPhones come too close together, thanks to Apple’s new NameDrop feature.
But that is not how the technology works, experts said. To share contact information using NameDrop, two users must place and hold their unlocked phones together, then each person would choose whether to send or receive contact information, or both. They can also choose which information to share, such as an email or a phone number. It’s not something that happens automatically.
We rate this claim False.
