This is a bit of a public service announcement. I came across this tweet yesterday:
https://twitter.com/afronomics_/status/833784254848970756
The poster tells the story of finding someone’s iPhone and discovering that she could see all her information, including her home address, on the lock screen. To read through this yourself, tap the embedded tweet (the link just after “please read”).
Without judging the danger of having your phone number exposed on your lock screen, at the very least, it’s worth knowing if this info is exposed.
So take a moment and use an unregistered finger (so you don’t unlock the phone), press and hold your iPhone’s home button, and ask Siri, “What’s my name?”
If Siri says, “You’ll need to unlock your iPhone first”, cool, you’re all set. Now rinse and repeat for your kids iPhones, see what info is exposed on their locked devices.
To customize what Siri reveals on your iPhone, go to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode, enter your passcode, then scroll to the section labeled ALLOW ACCESS WHEN LOCKED:. To learn what each of the setting do in this section, jump to this Apple support page, then scroll about halfway down the page. You’ll find links for each of these settings that go into more detail.
And realize that someone who has your phone number can pretty easily find your home address. Know your settings, know what info is exposed on your lock screen.
I just tried this on my wife’s phone and it only showed her name and phone number. When asking “where do I live?” It prompted for the passcode. Maybe the user’s phone isn’t updated?
Nope, you’ve had the same experience. As I said in the last para, once they have your phone number, it’s pretty easy to suss out your address (via Google, for example).
There is a definite difference between what Zach and I have seen though. All I saw was my phone number. Which as you said could help find my address, in my case it won’t because it’s not tied to it. I suppose you could use a pay for service to find my address. However, the twitter also mentions that she knew who called this phone most, where her car was parked and more. All I was able to discover was my phone number and the name of that last person I called, no other information. I think it may be an update issue, a reply tin the twitter feed showed someone who did update and the information was no longer available. There could be some variables here.
doesn’t really bother me. i even went out of my way to write my phone number on an expensive weight lifting belt i bring to the gym — i want people to contact me if they find my shit.
People can get a good amount of information about me from the lock screen by using the Emergency/Medical ID function. It’s worth the small chance some bad hombre is going to pick up my phone and learn I take metformin for paramedics and other emergency personnel to have necessary info.
Plus with cellphones, for the most part, you are not able to find someones address as easily as in the past with landlines.
That’s what I thought till I Googled my cellphone number. Low and behold some voter registration database listed my full name, address, and birth year. None of which was behind a paywall. Disturbing!
Genuine question: is it easy to figure out someone’s address from their cell phone number, or is that for a landline number?
I work a Shakespeare in the Park gig every summer and often have people turn in lost cell phones to me; say what you will about the privacy aspects of this, but I’m thrilled to know that I can ask Siri who the phone belongs to and have a name I can call out. (and, if they have a contact photo set for themselves, a picture of the owner)
The phone number it shows comes from your Contact’s “Me” card. I have mine set to a Google Voice number which has no address with it. I create a second card for myself that has all my real info in it.
Yeah, I’m not quite clear about how this is such a freak-out sort of thing. If someone gets their hands on my phone, there are many things I’d be worried about long before I ever got to “they now know my phone number,” especially since if I started getting harassing texts/calls from someone I could just block them.
While I guess there might be privacy issues to consider, I can’t help but think that being able to easily connect someone with a lost phone is a good thing.
There are a million ways someone can find my contact info, but if they find it via my lost phone it is somehow scary??
why “(esp women)”?
Are women different from men?
Are women inferior to men?
Can they not make decisions for themselves?
Can they not defend themselves?
Do they not have agency?
why do people – but especially women – treat women like they are child-like, defenseless creatures? I don’t know women like that. The women in my life are not fragile baby birds… they are strong of mind and independent.
I google mine and it lists someone else’s name and address. I guess it is hit and miss. It doesn’t seem accurate at least.
I went back to google and added voter registration, no quotes and it returned NO results.
And yes, I am registered to vote. In two states currently, I moved. But the last state I was registered to vote for over 20 years.
That’s what we are currently discussing above.
Perhaps the writer feel otherwise.
It only give my phone numbers both landline and mobile and my address and the person who find my phone knows where to return my phone if he or she chose to.
The only way I can see this occurring is if the person had completely turned off any passcode (or fingerprint) on the device – i.e. slide to unlock and it goes straight to home screen?
Granted, non-password protected iPhones are rare. But not uncommon!
A better reason to disable Siri without unlocking is you can tell it to turn on Airplane mode, which would disable Find My iPhone if it were stolen. Just turn it off.
but please, leave siri active at the lock screen. otherwise i couldn’t tell your phone to call you names when you leave it on the table while going to the toilet. presses home button – “call me “you idiot””
I see this as a benefit. I am going risk the miniscule chance that someone who found my phone would look at that as a way to get my home address.
I would much rather have the information available to someone who found my phone and wanted to get it back to me.