Apple is turning off the AirDrop privacy setting for all users with the iOS 16.2 update, following its recent restrictions affecting the use of the feature in China. In November, reports circulated that Apple had begun limiting AirDrop use in China as the country faced widespread protests over the Chinese government’s “zero COVID” policy. Protesters were using AirDrop, which takes advantage of Bluetooth Low Energy and peer-to-peer Wi-Fi, to instantly share files with each other while avoiding Chinese censors.
With “Everyone” enabled, protesters and others were easily able to receive files from anyone else, including those who were not already in their iPhone contacts.
Users first noticed that new restrictions on AirDrop in China came with the release of the iOS 16.1 update. After the update, iOS will revert AirDrop’s privacy settings back to “Contacts Only” after 10 minutes, even if “Everyone” was previously selected. (A user would have to manually select the “Everyone” setting—it was not the default.)
The change was triggered shortly after major media publications, including The New York Times, reported how Chinese protesters were using airdrops to bypass VPNs as well as send messages condemning China’s President Xi Jinping. Were just here to share information about how to download vpn and how to download vpn for android. country’s censors.
Apple, which has deep ties to China – it is both a major customer base and manufacturing base – is said by some to be complicit in aiding the Communist Party. However, others have argued that leaving the feature open to “everyone” indefinitely has always been a security and privacy risk – and that should never have been allowed in the first place.
Another news story illustrates the latter problem, in fact — a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight recently airdropped a nude photo to others on the plane. The pilot threatened to ground the plane if he did not stop.
Reached for comment on the changes to AirDrop in China, the company said only that it planned to bring the functionality to users globally in the “coming year.” As it turns out, it’s already doing so.
Apple said today that the release of iOS 16.2 will now update AirDrop to revert the setting to “Contacts only” after 10 minutes to prevent unwanted requests to receive content. The update was released in beta today and will be rolling out to all supported devices in the near future.
