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What a bogus headline. If you don't want to try to sync with others publically, don't airdrop in a place where you think someone is waiting to steal your infor

What a bogus headline. If you don't want to try to sync with others publically, don't airdrop in a place where you think someone is waiting to steal your information. Reality though - your email and phone number is probably already out there. I'm waiting for the headline - thieves who grab the phone you stick out in front of you while you walk / sit / eat / drink / ride bus / ride train - may get PII. They really can - and likely lots more than whatever apple is leaking. No excuse for apple's idiocy, just some perspective perhaps. You can easily avoid this - I can't remember last time I used share pane in public.

randyrand 5y ago
It's not just email and phone. It's email and phone and location. This would be very useful info for marketing campaigns. Automated emails to people that go to specific stores, parks, etc.
- GeekyBear 5y ago
  The number of people transferring files in public is so limited that it would be much more simple to buy the marketing data for everyone in a given city.
- joshmanders 5y ago
  > and location. Ok? AirDrop doesn't work miles away from people, so if they got your email and phone already through AirDrop, how is having your location such emphasized? "They can see you, gasp!"
  - randyrand 5y ago
    It shouldn't be too hard to understand... The more trackers you place, the more location data you have on that person. You could literally put thousands around a city at many different stores, gas stations, parks, etc.
    - innagadadavida 5y ago
      The article is sparse on how they implemented. Do you need a Mac/iPhone or can this thing run on very cheap hardware that can be deployed at scale? Given they found this almost two years ago, I wonder if there is an actual attack or exploit that has been deployed or is this one of those attacks that don’t leave the lab environment?
lathiat 5y ago
Unfortunately while you shouldn't try to sync with others publically is a good theory, in the current implementation just opening the share sheet to share via messages or some other app will trigger AirDrop discovery. So you'd need to actively turn the feature off. In some ways it seems having the "Contacts only" mode enabled is almost worse than having it set to everyone. The obvious problem with having it set to everyone though is you can easily get airdropped things by people around you. Which can be a great joke but since it displays preview of image receives can also be used in harmful or abusive ways.

randyrand 5y ago

It's not just email and phone. It's email and phone and location. This would be very useful info for marketing campaigns. Automated emails to people that go to specific stores, parks, etc.

GeekyBear 5y ago
The number of people transferring files in public is so limited that it would be much more simple to buy the marketing data for everyone in a given city.
joshmanders 5y ago
> and location. Ok? AirDrop doesn't work miles away from people, so if they got your email and phone already through AirDrop, how is having your location such emphasized? "They can see you, gasp!"
- randyrand 5y ago
  It shouldn't be too hard to understand... The more trackers you place, the more location data you have on that person. You could literally put thousands around a city at many different stores, gas stations, parks, etc.
  - innagadadavida 5y ago
    The article is sparse on how they implemented. Do you need a Mac/iPhone or can this thing run on very cheap hardware that can be deployed at scale? Given they found this almost two years ago, I wonder if there is an actual attack or exploit that has been deployed or is this one of those attacks that don’t leave the lab environment?

lathiat 5y ago

Unfortunately while you shouldn't try to sync with others publically is a good theory, in the current implementation just opening the share sheet to share via messages or some other app will trigger AirDrop discovery. So you'd need to actively turn the feature off. In some ways it seems having the "Contacts only" mode enabled is almost worse than having it set to everyone. The obvious problem with having it set to everyone though is you can easily get airdropped things by people around you. Which can be a great joke but since it displays preview of image receives can also be used in harmful or abusive ways.