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iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

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Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#261

Post by beager »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #190
beager wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3D touch and long-press are such awful places to bury any sort of functionality. There are no visual cues, no material cues, and the only way you'd know about those things are to watch Apple keynotes. How hard would it have been to emulate what they did with f.lux, I mean Night Shift and say "Bluetooth, off until 5am (tap for more options)" or "Wi-Fi, off at this location (tap for more options)"

Not to mention that 3D Touch isn’t available on all currently sold models.

Which I’ve long held is a wedge they use to force the obsoletion of otherwise suitable devices.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#262

Post by calvinbhai »

Though I wish it was communicated better, I don’t know how they can do it. It’s good to know the difference.

I love this feature. Fringe wifi areas are where I turn wifi off, and often I’m not turning wifi back on. It affects cellular data consumption, location accuracy and also the battery.

I don’t understand how is this affecting the security of the device.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#263

Post by inferiorhuman »

golangnews wrote: post #227
lloeki wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't use 3D touch to turn off wifi. According to Apple you have go into settings to do so. Indeed, the detailed block of controls does not present the three possible states to the user. In the same zoomed in block, the Airdrop toggle does. Conversely, going to Settings is binary and allows only for On/Off, not that very practical Disconnect state. The difference between Off and Disconnected is a light bar acro…

I agree it's not a huge security vulnerability, just bad design by Apple. There are also a few other reasons for disabling wifi - battery life, tracking, debugging connections, and of course security as well (not in response to specific vulnerabilities, but on the principle of less attack surface being safer).

> I agree it's not a huge security vulnerability

Until the next Broadcom WiFi radio vulnerability.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#264

Post by pdimitar »

I have a lot of respect for EFF but this time they just do a blind hate.

Many people forget to re-enable Wi-Fi after they turned off due to a spotty connection. This feature saves them money.

The security-minded users have zero trouble going to the real control panel -- it's quite honestly one Home button press and one one tap away! -- and do the real disabling of Wi-Fi / Bluetooth.

Come on. This is not a grand conspiracy. It's an attempt to make all sides happy. I agree it could've been communicated better -- that's very obvious -- but everything above that is just Apple hate.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#265

Post by chrismbarr »

lumisota wrote: post #228
golangnews wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't use 3D touch to turn off wifi. According to Apple you have go into settings to do so. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208086 The problems with this change are: It is surprising - grey buttons usually mean disabled permanently, not disabled except for some uses or for some indeterminate length of time. It changes established behaviour without a clear warning to the user. It is inconsistent - disabling blue…

You can 3D Touch the Settings icon to jump to the WiFi settings.

I'm on an iPhone 6, before 3D touch was introduced. Usually a long press is equivalent, but not here apparently. I just cannot get to this setting.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#266

Post by pdimitar »

clouddrover wrote: post #45
dvcrn wrote: post #23

I hate this. I have a ton of wifi hotspots setup in the city, some of them require authentication, some of them don't. I leave work, mount my phone on my bike, "turn off" WiFi and cycle before realizing that nothing (like maps) is updating because I connected to a wifi point that needs authentication, or a point that is now far away because I already cycled by. While cycling, I reach to my phone and switch it "off" a…

The workaround I use is to add Settings to the taskbar. If you force-press Settings it pops up a menu which allows you to get to the WiFi section directly. Turning off WiFi in Settings turns it off (you'll see the WiFi icon has a line through it in Control Centre).

Already doing this, it's basically half a second more work and I can't for the life of me understand why the people make so much drama about the new state of affairs.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#267

Post by futurix »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #195
robotresearcher wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still bugs me as very undiscoverable. I don’t want to press things I don’t intend to toggle just to see whats underneath them. Maybe I’ll get used to it but right now I’m old man grumpy.

sometimes an app shows a popup, sometimes you show the delete icon for all app. wonderful interface.

It always shows a pop-up.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#268

Post by pdimitar »

davb wrote: post #39

In general, iOS isn’t very friendly to users who favour 3G/4G over WiFi. I’ve got unlimited data on my LTE plan but very shaky WiFi at home. I can’t start an iCloud backup without WiFi and can’t download apps or updates over a certain size. And now WiFi miraculously turns itself back on after I turn it off in Control Center (as I’ve done for some time). If I want it off I’ve got to dig through Settings. Changing defa…

> If I want it off I’ve got to dig through Settings.

Yeah: press Home button, tap Settings, tap Wi-Fi, tap the toggle.

A lot of digging indeed.

Like, come on.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#269

Post by evolve2017 »

morganvachon wrote: post #259
josteink wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you completely missed that you can indeed actually turn them off via 3D touch My iPhone SE doesn't have 3D touch, or if it does, I have no idea what it is. So as far as I know, no, I don't have that option.

As I said, long-press on non 3D touch devices opens the same box.

This is patently false (I have just done the very thing you said, then confirmed that the wifi was in fact still on).

I think this whole argument just lends more support to the idea that Apple is being deceptive with this UI.

Re: iOS 11's Misleading "Off-Ish" Setting for Radios Is Bad for User Security

#270

Post by evolve2017 »

sigjuice wrote: post #223
josteink wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe flight mode actually works, but people with wifi-only devices have been conditioned to believe disabling wifi is sufficient. And with Apple now being inconsistent about what a on/off toggle actually does... It's hard to tell what toggling flight-mode actually results in. And if I were in the airline business, I would take an issue with that.

I am actually quite surprised by this and to me it looks like people are just overcomplicating things. You get on a plane, you turn on Airplane Mode. Simple. It would never ever occur to me in a million years to turn on Airplane Mode on my phone, but then go ahead and just turn off the wifi on my iPad. Also, isn't Bluetooth also supposed to be off, which Airplane Mode would take care of? EDIT: This is what Airplane M…

As an opposing viewpoint, turning off wifi is exactly what I used to do when boarding a plane - my bluetooth radio is always off.
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