People need to start looking shit up before they share it.

Trae Dorn

So there was a bunch of weird scare mongering put out by various police departments about two weeks ago where they started telling people that Apple's new Namedrop meant that people could steal your contact information without you knowing. Why were cops sharing this? Likely because they didn't bother looking up how the tech works or what it does. I'd like to think that. That's definitely the generous reading, as it means their motivations were in the right place.

But it's still not true.

While it's true that Namedrop lets two iPhone users easily share a contact card and share contact information, none of the lies they spread are remotely accurate. For those of you who don't know, for Namedrop to work:

Both Devices must be in proximity
Both Devices must be unlocked
Both Devices need their users to DIRECTLY TELL THEIR PHONES it's okay to share EVERY TIME YOU SHARE

For someone to Namedrop your information against your will, they must literally have access to your unlocked device. If they have that, they don't need to use Namedrop to get your information.

And while plenty of local news stations shared this uncritically, and places like GMA did a shitty "both sides" story, if you spent more than five minutes going to sources like Consumer Reports or the tech press you might learn how it works and find out... this whole thing is weird scaremongering nonsense? Like this story was thoroughly debunked as bullshit a full week ago.

Yet here we are, a week later, and what do I find with thousands of share on my Tumblr dash today?

This. I find this.

And, like, it's getting passed around today. Right now someone is reblogging that uncritically. It's not even getting the misinformation version right either. The misinformation was that it would let someone steal YOUR contact information, but this person's telling everyone it's letting them steal your FULL CONTACTS. I don't even know where to start.

Like, I beg of you, please actually look shit up before you start sharing it.

For fuck's sake.

wren

Truly, two minutes on a search engine could really help with the spread of mis- and disinformation on pretty much every topic.

Am a librarian and yes, those research skills serve me often and well navigating the online world, but so often you don't even need significant research skills! Just the willingness to switch apps long enough to search.

Trae Dorn

wren I just genuinely wish people actually cared enough to learn.

And it's not a generational thing. I see this problem with folks of all ages. Twenty years ago it would be weird, dumb email forwards. Now it's uncritical passing of things on social media.

I hate it. I hate that it hasn't gotten better even though verifying things has gotten easier. It's just frustrating

wren

Trae Dorn yes, I think the care factor is key. I cut my teeth in my profession teaching digital literacy skills and online safety, and of course critical thinking and verifying sources are also important offline, but they're a big part of digital literacy and online safety so came up often. Just getting folks to care is more than half the battle.