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IPhone with fingerprint reader is police wet dream
Fingerprint reader with a user's fingerprint data stored in Apple's cloud? Sounds like a police dept's wet dream.
- gabriel34 13y agoMotorola implemented fingerprint reader on Atrix, but it is strictly local authentication. I don't think fingerprint data on cloud causes a significant raise in exposure of your data because your phone number is already tied to you. On the other hand, a unified fingerprint database could pose serious risk to privacy if made queryable. I would only trust such system if I could encode my fingerprint's hash with another mean of authentication such as a password so that only with the password could my fingerprint be verified. That would, of course, lessen the appeal of the fingerprint scanner by making it harder to use than a simple password, but would make for a nice two-factor authentication.
- mstolpm 13y agoI don't think so. But it might be a great feature for enterprise BYOD/CYOD initiatives - having a two factor authorization integrated into the phone (fingerprint + application pwd) could give Apple a significant advantage here. But what do you think will happen regarding police? If they can access your phone, they'll be able to take your fingerprints anyway. If they get access to the cloud data, there a more interesting parts in the data than the finger print hashes: Getting a few biometric data points from the cloud can be considered the same as a hash - its not the complete fingerprint that would be stored inside the cloud (and storage in the cloud would likely be optional). Some 3rd party can't even match the hashes to a real person - could be your child, significant other, ... using the phone registered to your name. Law enforcement, government, ... on the other hand have already access to finger prints (complete prints/sets) for a lot a travelers, citizens and of cause criminals.