Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday August 18 2015, @03:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the look-for-people-in-trench-coats dept.

The BBC reports on a woman who was sent pictures of a penis via Apple AirDrop.

The victim received two pictures of an unknown man's penis on her phone via Apple's Airdrop sharing function.

Lorraine Crighton-Smith, 34, said she felt "violated" and reported it to the British Transport Police (BTP).

Supt Gill Murray said this particular crime was new to her force and urged people to report any other incidents.

Ms Crighton-Smith, who was travelling on a train in south London, told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme: "I had Airdrop switched on because I had been using it previously to send photos to another iPhone user - and a picture appeared on the screen of a man's penis, which I was quite shocked by.

The article later describes how to make sure that AirDrop is set to only allow pictured from known contacts.

Is this a major privacy issue or is it simply a case of a misconfigured device?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Tuesday August 18 2015, @03:43PM

    by looorg (578) on Tuesday August 18 2015, @03:43PM (#224442)

    [quote]Is this a major privacy issue or is it simply a case of a misconfigured device?[/quote]

    Can't it be both? Clearly its a security and privacy issue if you can just receive information from unknown devices left and right. This time it was a penis (oh the horror!) next time it could be child-porn or some gruesome picture of dead humans etc.

    But then most people doesn't seem to think about the configuration issues. They set things up once to it "works" and then they don't think about it anymore until they get an unwanted dick-pic. That said what kinda sheltered life has MS Crighton-Smith lived if she gets traumatized by a picture of a penis? Is the clue in the "MS"?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2015, @03:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2015, @03:50PM (#224445)

    That said what kinda sheltered life has MS Crighton-Smith lived if she gets traumatized by a picture of a penis? Is the clue in the "MS"?

    Personally I'd feel more traumatized and privacy-violated if my unusual name, age and travel arrangements were published in the national news. They claim to have a quote from her, so presumably she willingly permitted this.

  • (Score: 2) by Tramii on Tuesday August 18 2015, @04:19PM

    by Tramii (920) on Tuesday August 18 2015, @04:19PM (#224464)

    Clearly its a security and privacy issue if you can just receive information from unknown devices left and right.

    Security issue? Maybe. Privacy issue? No. If you want a device that will only receive information from known devices, then don't use a cell phone. Every part of it is designed to work with unknown devices. Does your phone only take calls from your family members? Can you only receive texts from friends? Does your email client block everything except what is specified in a white-list?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by tibman on Tuesday August 18 2015, @05:41PM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 18 2015, @05:41PM (#224502)

      Penis over voice is not nearly as effective because it comes off as a tapping sound that sounds like a bad connection. It simply wasn't an issue (unless you knew what that sound was!)

      --
      SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2015, @10:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 18 2015, @10:50PM (#224641)

    Clearly its a security and privacy issue if you can just receive information from unknown devices left and right.

    Except that its the intended usage of the app in question. If I configure an app to receive pictures from anyone (like the person in question here has done), and some random person sends me a picture, exactly as I have configured the app to accept, then there is on issue except for user idiocy. An non-intrusive, non-malicious app working as exactly designed and as intended cannot be a security or privacy issue.