New iPhone Update Comes With Warning From Law Enforcement

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If your iPhone automatically updated to the new 17.1.1 operating system like mine did over the weekend, this is something you'll want to be aware of and possibly change before going anywhere near a large group of people.

Let's face it, having a smartphone, or any kind of phone is essential these days. With these devices, we want our privacy and we want to know that the content and data in our phones are secure and can't be stolen or hacked by someone else. But with the recent iPhone Operating System (iOS) update, some of your information could be at risk.

'NameDrop', is a new feature that is now active.

Police departments around the nation are putting out alerts to parents and iPhone users regarding a feature within 'AirDrop' that is now automatically turned on after the upgrade to iOS 17.1.1.

The feature called 'NameDrop' will allow iPhone users to easily share contact information with each other by simply holding their iPhone or iWatch closely together. They can share numbers, photos and more easily when phones are in close range. My wife learned about this Sunday morning and we quickly updated our settings so that others couldn't mistakenly get access to our information.

If you discover that you're phone is sending information to another phone, the Apple support site says you can cancel the interaction simply by moving the two devices away from each other by locking your iPhone before the NameDrop transfer completes. In addition, Apple states it only works for new contact information, not updating an existing contact.

Still, police departments around the nation are suggesting to parents to turn off this feature which was automatically turned on with the update to help keep your child's phone safe.

Here's how to turn off 'NameDrop' feature.

• Settings
• General
• AirDrop
• Bringing Devices Together
  toggle off (to the left and background will turn gray)

While phone manufacturers are constantly working on ways to improve the security of our phones to make them more reliable through updates to the operating system, we also must be aware of the updates and changes that are being made to our phones to protect our information.