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Not essential to the main thesis of the article, but still: "But let's just say you're okay with Apple sharing your fingerprints with the NSA, as I've already t

by praptak 13y ago

Not essential to the main thesis of the article, but still: "But let's just say you're okay with Apple sharing your fingerprints with the NSA, as I've already told you, they're not private at all." Ok, they are not private but I'd still not willingly put them on anything controlled by an US corporation. Govt sending their agents to collect my fingerprints from glasses? Not feasible, too costly. Agency asking Apple to fetch the fingerprints willingly provided by the population "just in case"? Maybe not today and not tomorrow but in a few years? I wouldn't bet on them not doing it. And once there you're just one false positive away from some serious shit happening to you.

twoodfin 13y ago
As others have joked: Imagine how much people would freak out if Apple devices had a microphone or a camera capable of recording you surreptitiously! If you're worried that Apple will roll over for the NSA, and that the NSA will, at some point, be out to get you, the quantity of information they could gather through backdoors on your phone is so astounding that it's hard to understand why hashed fingerprint feature analysis would be the last straw.
- praptak 13y ago
  To be clear - it's not about the scenario where NSA is already out to get me. Obviously in this case the cost of getting my fingerprints the traditional way doesn't matter anymore. It's the scenario in which NSA gets interested in me because a) I made it easy for them to mass-harvest my fingerprints and b) they happen to get a false match on a terrorists' ashtray or whatever. I'm not convinced that the (hypothetically mass-harvested) material from the camera and microphone has comparable potential for such a false match.
bbatchelder 13y ago
A lot of people have already given their fingerprints to the US Govt - children whose parents enrolled them in "kid safety" programs, teachers, anyone that ever applied for a position of public trust or any kind of background search, people that have applied for concealed carry permits... The US Govt probably has 3-4 sets of my fingerprints in various data stores across several agencies...and I'm no one special.

by praptak 13y ago

twoodfin 13y ago

As others have joked: Imagine how much people would freak out if Apple devices had a microphone or a camera capable of recording you surreptitiously! If you're worried that Apple will roll over for the NSA, and that the NSA will, at some point, be out to get you, the quantity of information they could gather through backdoors on your phone is so astounding that it's hard to understand why hashed fingerprint feature analysis would be the last straw.

praptak 13y ago
To be clear - it's not about the scenario where NSA is already out to get me. Obviously in this case the cost of getting my fingerprints the traditional way doesn't matter anymore. It's the scenario in which NSA gets interested in me because a) I made it easy for them to mass-harvest my fingerprints and b) they happen to get a false match on a terrorists' ashtray or whatever. I'm not convinced that the (hypothetically mass-harvested) material from the camera and microphone has comparable potential for such a false match.

bbatchelder 13y ago

A lot of people have already given their fingerprints to the US Govt - children whose parents enrolled them in "kid safety" programs, teachers, anyone that ever applied for a position of public trust or any kind of background search, people that have applied for concealed carry permits... The US Govt probably has 3-4 sets of my fingerprints in various data stores across several agencies...and I'm no one special.