Apple has one more security concern and this time it could be serious for all its users. A new report claims the Chinese government has been able to bypass the security levels of AirDrop which gives them access to a person’s phone number and email ID.
The government has reportedly taken help from the Beijing institute which has managed to break AirDrop’s encryption giving them details about the person sending the files wirelessly and also their email address.
The worrying part about this development is that the police have used this trick to find multiple suspects, as reported by Bloomberg this week. AirDrop is Apple’s free-to-air file transfer tool that works across iPhones, iPads and Macs. You just have to identify and select the person to send a file, and once they accept the request, the content is sent to them in minutes, depending on the size of the file.
Apple has always prided itself on privacy, which has been evident with AirDrop as well but the new loophole used by the Chinese government could bring it to the attention of other countries as well.
China has been concerned about AirDrop’s anonymity which goes against its censorship rules. Apple has tried to tow with the country’s policies without completely breaking the privacy of its users but the new technique used by the researchers in Beijing suggests China wanted to get more from these transfer tools.
We’re not sure how these changes will affect people in the region, especially at a time when people are showing less interest in buying iPhones. Usually, Apple is quick to revert to these lapses and fix the problem right away, but it seems that the Cupertino-based giant might make an exception, at least for those using an iPhone in China, which sadly doesn’t make them look good in the overall landscape.
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