4 ms·

The UI probably needs to be more explicit about what's going on. I would imagine most non-technical users aren't well-versed in how Apple's Secure Enclave (or

The UI probably needs to be more explicit about what's going on. I would imagine most non-technical users aren't well-versed in how Apple's Secure Enclave (or other competing solutions) manage authentication, and so I wouldn't be surprised if "allow example.com to use TouchID" would give many the impression that the website is asking to access their biometric data. Ideally, the prompt should reflect the actual model, though I'm not sure how one might pose that in an accessible and succinct way.

easton 6y ago
They could just have it say "example.com wants to use Touch ID to sign-in. Biometric data is not shared." with a help link that goes on to explain in laymens terms how your iPhone basically sends a password-ish thing to the website after you use Touch ID (similar to how Apple Pay sends a one-time use credit card number to a merchant).
- asdff 6y ago
  Apple's UI designers would never tolerate such a helpful and wordy dialog box.
  - can16358p 6y ago
    I don't understand why they even ask it as a popup. I mean, you already get "touch to login" kind of text next to Touch ID on Touch Bar, if you don't want to login that way, simply don't touch it. Am I missing something extra about the purpose of this popup?
    - kevincox 6y ago
      Because who is looking at their touch bar constantly just in case a site is trying to login? It seems to me that every time it is active a dialog pops up. Especially when I am using an external monitor there is no way I would notice just that.
  - wpm 6y ago
    Maybe not on iOS but the Mac is replete with messages and dialogs as long as this.
djrogers 6y ago
> I wouldn't be surprised if "allow example.com to use TouchID" This is already a very common pattern on ios devices - every app that wants to allow touch or face ID based login uses such prompts, so users are used to it.
- om2 6y ago
  Yep, we tried to be consistent with the wording for the app prompt (even though that doesn't generate a private key in the same way).

easton 6y ago

They could just have it say "example.com wants to use Touch ID to sign-in. Biometric data is not shared." with a help link that goes on to explain in laymens terms how your iPhone basically sends a password-ish thing to the website after you use Touch ID (similar to how Apple Pay sends a one-time use credit card number to a merchant).

asdff 6y ago
Apple's UI designers would never tolerate such a helpful and wordy dialog box.
- can16358p 6y ago
  I don't understand why they even ask it as a popup. I mean, you already get "touch to login" kind of text next to Touch ID on Touch Bar, if you don't want to login that way, simply don't touch it. Am I missing something extra about the purpose of this popup?
  - kevincox 6y ago
    Because who is looking at their touch bar constantly just in case a site is trying to login? It seems to me that every time it is active a dialog pops up. Especially when I am using an external monitor there is no way I would notice just that.
- wpm 6y ago
  Maybe not on iOS but the Mac is replete with messages and dialogs as long as this.

djrogers 6y ago

> I wouldn't be surprised if "allow example.com to use TouchID" This is already a very common pattern on ios devices - every app that wants to allow touch or face ID based login uses such prompts, so users are used to it.

om2 6y ago
Yep, we tried to be consistent with the wording for the app prompt (even though that doesn't generate a private key in the same way).