I don't think it's a good idea to use fingerprint as a way to authenticate. Fingerprint is not private data. By "private", I mean as private as a private GPG ke

I don't think it's a good idea to use fingerprint as a way to authenticate. Fingerprint is not private data. By "private", I mean as private as a private GPG key. Any fingerprint is able to read a fingerprint as long as you put your finger on it. When there're more fingerprint powered applications, it's gonna be really easy to steal credentials. You may use a passphrase. But that would be as secure as using a passphrase alone. Fingerprint is the public key. The private key would be your hand + your physical presence. However, since fingerprint itself is public, you can't rely on fingerprint to identify physical presence. Unless, you make fingerprint private enough. For example, permanently attach something on to your finger. Instead of providing your fingerprint to third-party application, it generates a key pair based on your fingerprint, and use these keys for authentication.