Should Your Turn Off Wi-Fi & Bluetooth on Your Devices?

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are essential connection types. All of our modern devices use them, and use them frequently: Your computer uses Wi-Fi to connect to the internet, and power everything from email to Zoom, while Bluetooth is responsible for making wireless devices like headphones, keyboards, watches, and mice work.

But you might hear some discuss the idea that it’s best to disable these features on your devices when not in use, in the name of cybersecurity. It might seem like a bit of a pain to think about. After all, who wants to constantly activate and deactivate their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections throughout the day? Still, those standing by this advice have a point, to an extent.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are, obviously, different types of connections. Many of these connections are good, such as connecting to a known internet, or communicating with a safe peripheral. That said, sometimes connections aren’t so good. Bad actors can take advantage of your open Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection to breach your privacy on your smartphone, laptop, or tablet.

Consider Apple’s AirDrop — it uses both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to work, and has been exploited in the past. Strangers have taken advantage of unsuspecting users’ open AirDrop connections, even when the feature was set to “Contacts Only.” That bug has been fixed, but it’s possible new exploits will be discovered in the future.

Or, in another scenario, bad actors could use a Bluetooth scanner to look for targets. They may walk past your car with the scanner, or your hotel room, and decide whether or not there are enough valuable targets to make a break in worth it.

That being said, these situations are almost entirely hypothetical. While it’s possible, it isn’t likely. A thief is much more likely to break into a car that has valuables visible than rely on a Bluetooth scanning app hoping to connect to a laptop or smartphone. In fact, you’re significantly more likely to be targeted thanks to a phishing scheme or malware attack than through an abuse of Wi-Fi/Bluetooth.

It’s always good to be vigilant and careful, but focus your efforts on where the main threats really are.