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Thinking the same thing regarding privacy. I'm all for getting rid of passwords, but the idea of Google (and other service providers) keeping that much informa

Thinking the same thing regarding privacy. I'm all for getting rid of passwords, but the idea of Google (and other service providers) keeping that much information on me would definitely push me to getting rid of smartphone. Yes, I know that Google, Facebook, etc. already know a lot about me. But I still have some control over it. And a lot of it are things that I can and do change over time (what they knew about me 5 years ago doesn't necessarily reflect who I am now).

eevilspock 10y ago
Not to mention that if this catches on, ever more parties (that you authenticate with) will be collecting these biometrics, which means there would be an ever greater chance of that data getting used to impersonate you. To avoid this they would have to keep it on the device, in a secure enclave, in "hashed" form rather than the raw biometric, and only transmit the fact of authentication to Google, much as how Apple deals with Touch ID on the iPhone. We all know Eric Schmidt's view on privacy: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities." "We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.” “Your digital identity will live forever… because there’s no delete button.”
- jimktrains2 10y ago
  > Not to mention that if this catches on, ever more parties (that you authenticate with) will be collecting these biometrics ... and then doing data science over them. It's like Phrenology all over again!
marssaxman 10y ago
I'm all for not getting rid of passwords, because everything proposed to replace them so far has sounded a lot worse.

eevilspock 10y ago

Not to mention that if this catches on, ever more parties (that you authenticate with) will be collecting these biometrics, which means there would be an ever greater chance of that data getting used to impersonate you. To avoid this they would have to keep it on the device, in a secure enclave, in "hashed" form rather than the raw biometric, and only transmit the fact of authentication to Google, much as how Apple deals with Touch ID on the iPhone. We all know Eric Schmidt's view on privacy: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities." "We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.” “Your digital identity will live forever… because there’s no delete button.”

jimktrains2 10y ago
> Not to mention that if this catches on, ever more parties (that you authenticate with) will be collecting these biometrics ... and then doing data science over them. It's like Phrenology all over again!

marssaxman 10y ago

I'm all for not getting rid of passwords, because everything proposed to replace them so far has sounded a lot worse.