Minnesota Sheriff Warns Parents About iPhone Update

WINDOM (WJON News) -- A Minnesota Sheriff's Office is warning parents about a change that happens when you update your iPhone.

The Cottonwood County Sheriff's Office says if you have an iPhone and have done the recent iOS 17 update, they have set a new feature called NameDrop defaulted to 'On'.

This feature allows the sharing of your contact information just by bringing your phones close together.

It is a cool and convenient feature to have for adults who voluntarily want to share their information with each other.

Several technology experts have been weighing in on this feature since law enforcement agencies started sounding the alarm.  The industry experts note both parties' phones have to be open and both phones have to accept the sharing of information, so it's not as if a stranger could swipe your contact information without your knowledge.

On your device, the feature says, "Easily swap numbers with NameDrop, share photos, and more by holding the top of your iPhone close to another iPhone."

To shut this off go to Settings, General, AirDrop, and Bringing Devices Together. Change to OFF.

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