07 September 2013

furbo.org: “Fingerprints”

It looks like my hunch about the iPhone invite was right: new phones are likely to have “silver rings” that are fingerprint sensors embedded into the home button.

So what does this mean? Most people assume that it’s just going to be easier to access your home screen (without entering a passcode.) But I think it goes much deeper than that.

Craig Hockenberry

On the one hand: many cool opportunities for new technologies and better experience – I was thinking for example that this could also be used by your bank to authenticate you for mobile payments. Or to lock and erase an iOS device if you don’t come into contact with it for some specified period of time.

On the other: your fingerprint(s) will get onto Apple’s servers and from there quite possible to the US government

Update: Officially Apple says that user fingerprints will be encrypted and will not be available to third parties.

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