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iOS 11's Misleading 'Off-ish' Setting For Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is Bad for User Security (eff.org)
Last month, we covered a story about how turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in iOS 11's Control Center doesn't really turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. EFF has called the situation bad for user security. From the report: Instead, what actually happens in iOS 11 when you toggle your quick settings to "off" is that the phone will disconnect from Wi-Fi networks and some devices, but remain on for Apple services. Location Services is still enabled, Apple devices (like Apple Watch and Pencil) stay connected, and services such as Handoff and Instant Hotspot stay on. Apple's UI fails to even attempt to communicate these exceptions to its users. It gets even worse. When you toggle these settings in the Control Center to what is best described as "off-ish," they don't stay that way. The Wi-Fi will turn back full-on if you drive or walk to a new location. And both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will turn back on at 5:00 AM. This is not clearly explained to users, nor left to them to choose, which makes security-aware users vulnerable as well. The only way to turn off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios is to enable Airplane Mode or navigate into Settings and go to the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth sections. When a phone is designed to behave in a way other than what the UI suggests, it results in both security and privacy problems. A user has no visual or textual clues to understand the device's behavior, which can result in a loss of trust in operating system designers to faithfully communicate what's going on.
Since the battery can't be removed, I'm beginning to wonder if there is any way to turn off wifi AT ALL.
Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
It's called LYING.
Apple's paternalistic approach to their users results in a 'we know better than you how to protect you' attitude.
It's unfortunate for Apple, because it means that only the duller customers will continue to trust Apple's judgement.
Unless you can remove the battery.
The mic is always hot, and probably the camera too.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Apple's moto since Steve Jobs' death is "design over function".
This is the user-facing version of what developers have had to contend with for a while now. The iOS APIs are extremely vague in some areas, especially in areas Apple don't want you to venture too far into; you get things in the documentation such as "You might get a callback depending on system load" or "this is best effort" or "your notification may be processed if the user normally uses your app at the time you specify". Many things are worded in a weasel way to allow Apple to pull the plug or completely change behaviour and still technically be within their published guidelines. It's like taking a step back in time to a point where the underlying systems were expected to be unreliable - I've lost track of the amount of defensive code I've had to write "just in case Apple change X".
Of course none of this is a problem if your app just shows Tweets or cute kitties, or something not much beyond a "cool demo" of someone using Metal to show a spinning cube or a marching robot.
It's a total minefield and none of the problems I've hit in the last few years have been technical, they've all been down to interpretation of some sentence in an online document Apple provide which covers some behaviour that my or may not be valid when the document was written, today, for my specific user base, for certain models etc. etc.
Of course, Android isn't much better.
It's almost like you're trying to be bad here editor.
Pro tip - go into settings and shut off wifi or bluetooth if you don't want to use it or you're that concerned about security.
If the off switch on a radio doesnâ(TM)t actually turn it off that sounds like something that should be filed as a complaint with the fcc. Ralf regulation is a serious matter.
Saying the UI doesn't communicate the differences is not entirely true. There is a visual difference in the control center between the radio being "on",m "disconnected" and "off".
In the normal "compact" control center mode if the device is "disconnected", the icon is displayed with a gray background (blue background is "on"). If the device is "off" the icon has a cross through it. In the expanded view (tap and hold on a button will bring up the expanded view), it will actually say "on", "disconnected" and "off" based on the mode.
I'm not saying this makes everything better, as the user would still have to know what the visual cue's mean. But to say that the UI fails to communicate this is not true.
To do it rightly, chuck it in the trash bin!
Misleading settings are bad - period. A thing should say what it does and do what it says.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I've disabled the automatic update for the OS.
The anti-apple hate here is just ... something else. Two stories on this, really?
So, on iOS there is this control panel you can access when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. In there is a WiFi logo, that is normally blue if you are connected to WiFi. If I tap it, it disconnects from the currently connected WiFi network. It's really nice for when I decide "hey, I don't want to access this NSFW thing while on the work WiFi" or "the hotspot in my Car (which has a different carrier then my cell phone)" is in a cellular dead spot and I need to disconnect from it. But when I come in range of another known network, the phone will associate with it again (like, when I get home and I'd like my phone using my home WiFi, I don't have to remember to turn it back on).
When you do this you even get a blurb of text on the screen "Disconnecting from {wifi name}." NOT "I've powered the WiFi radios down."
You still CAN actually power the WiFi radios down. You just have to go to Setting -> WiFi -> and flip the off switch. Now they are off, period.
So yea, the button in the control panel really means: disconnect from this wifi network because I don't like it right now.
Bluetooth does the same thing. Tapping that in the control center basically drops all connected devices. But two hours later when you turn your bluetooth headset on, it'll pair up just fine.
Queue freakout.
END
You can trivially prevent the problem by not buying the device. This is so easy to fix that I don't know why it's still a story.
And really, if in 2017 someone still hasn't figured out to not buy Apple's mobile products, then they're too technologically illiterate to have ever figured out a real on/off setting anyway. Some people simply can't be helped at all. I bet people had the same problems, in some form, a hundred years ago.
My samsung android has a similar feature I can turn off wifi but if I move to a new location it is turned back on. Like what happen just implemented you have to go into a deep menu and change that setting so off means off.
Airplane Mode... it doesn't turn off Wifi anymore. It re-enables Bluetooth when turned on again. It doesn't really work like it should.
Why not just save the state of the cellular/wifi/bluetooth settings and toggle them on/off? Why is this such a difficult thing?
My phone constantly reports available networks even with wifi turned off. It's Galaxy S7.
click the don't ream me button on the control panel. oh it doesnt't work either.
Newer versions of Android do not turn off Wi-Fi when you switch it off, the switch is just used to disconnect you. There is a setting that will re-enable WiFi when you come within range of a trusted hotspot (eg your home network). I've found it useful as occasionally I'll turn off WiFi when the free offering at a place is not working properly, and then forget to turn it back on when I leave.
If you REALLY want it all off, you can enable airplane mode and then piecemeal enable things you want (though cell service remains disabled). At least, I think it works this way. Not 100% sure.
The promise of the Apple eco-system was that everything worked together without fiddling, and there were no headaches. That promise is less and less true. More and more the damn things have gotten more buggy, and behaviors change (or get buried) for no obvious reason ("Courage" my ass).
Most recently the Apple router has occasionally stopped talking to the Apple TV when my Apple iPad is talking to the interwebs. Turn off WiFi (while I still can, since I am still on iOS10) and the Apple TV springs back to life for an hour or so.
I tried turning it off from General settings and it seems to stay off now. It was so fucking annoying when it kept switching back on all the time.
I actually fill find the behavior more useful than annoying, because I'm often around WiFi units I don't necessarily want to connect to at the time (like a Southwest WiFi before the plane is in the air, or some crappy WiFi I may have tried in the past but doesn't work at all well). It's nice just to say "don't connect to this now but don't leave WiFi off forever".
Honestly I think the better approach though, would be if you turn off WiFi or Bluetooth, to leave it off until you reached some location where you used it a few times previously - mostly home or work.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Bluetooth will turn back on at 5:00 AM"
Does it turn back off because my Bluetooth is still off.
You're going to get what you deserve
Queue outrage suppression task force. Paid, Ready!
This "I'm outraged at all the outrage" technique is pathetic.
Apple. Stop. Lying.
Turn off or put your phone in airplane mode if you need to leave it in a metal gym locker or it will cell tower search your battery to death over time.
-Eric