Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Toggles in iOS 11 Control Center “Compromise Security”, Claims EFF

Following Apple’s official confirmation that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are not fully disabled when toggled off in control center on iOS 11, non-profit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has criticized Apple over this change in a new article, saying that the toggles are “misleading” and “bad for user security” (via MacRumors).

According to EFF, the “loophole in connectivity” can potentially leave users open to new attacks, and it linked to a white paper that unveils apparent zero day vulnerabilities and security flaws in modern Bluetooth stacks. The article also highlighted Apple should keep the Control Center toggles off until the user flips them back on, rather than overriding the user’s choice at 5:00 a.m. local time the next morning. 

“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 users rely on the operating system as the bedrock for most security and privacy decisions, no matter what app or connected device they may be using, this trust is fundamental”.

So far, Apple does not seem to be taking a reverse course, since the toggles still work the same way in iOS 11.1 beta.