from Hacker News

Face ID is replacing Touch ID on the new iPhone X

by pearlsteinj on 9/12/17, 7:07 PM with 75 comments

  • by freeflight on 9/12/17, 8:19 PM

    Face recognition for authentification has been around for a quite a while, let's see how robust Apple could make it. It's still a weird future we're heading towards.

    It makes me wonder what legal consequences it's gonna have once this kind of technology is widespread among all smartphones with high identification reliability? What's to stop anybody from combining different biometric identification systems into one device? A combination of Touch ID/Face ID, coupled with some voice recognition and whatever else is possible with biometrics, would probably be able to identify the user with a very high certainty.

    Smartphones are also increasingly being turned into an "ID card replacement", even banks have been pushing to use them as a replacement for CC/Debit cards for years.

    Which kinda makes sense considering how not every country has ID cards but a vast number of people on this planet have smartphones or at least mobile phones. If one wanted to index the whole human population of planet Earth, it would probably a good start to "just" collect the SIM/IMEI data from all mobile phones in circulation. [0]

    It's still a quite dystopian idea of a future, where the identity of a person is solely defined and legitimized by their smartphone/mobile device. Scary thing being: We are closer to this kind of future than it might seem; the aptly named US program "Skynet" uses mobile metadata for targeting selection of drone strikes, has been doing so for quite a while [1]

    [0] https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SKYNET_(surveillance_program)

  • by kdamken on 9/12/17, 8:05 PM

    And I thought that removing the headphone jack for the 7 was the worst possible decision they could make.

    Does every design meeting at Apple start with: "What beloved feature can we remove and replace with something no one fucking cares about?"

  • by mzs on 9/12/17, 7:19 PM

    This has not been well thought out for part of the world.

    https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-08-13/expand-job-opportunit...

  • by whipoodle on 9/12/17, 7:41 PM

    Let's just make sure we're talking about how it will actually work, not what we're guessing based on some tech blogs and today's presentation.

  • by kevinavery on 9/12/17, 7:57 PM

    They say that Face ID falsely recognizes 1 in 1,000,000 people (1 in 50,000 for Touch ID), but it's a lot easier to find the people who look like a given target to unlock their phone. Could be an issue if a mutual friend knows someone who looks enough like you to unlock your phone.

  • by crazygringo on 9/12/17, 8:45 PM

    Genuine question: will identical twins be able to unlock each others' phones?

    Or do they actually have enough differences that the phone can pick up on, even if people can't tell them apart?

  • by kuschku on 9/12/17, 7:40 PM

    A non-conclusive list of places where this will be an issue:

    China, Japan, S.E.A.: Surgical masks against smog, or to avoid spreading germs.

    Northern Europe, Canada, Northern US: Winter clothing that covers the face to avoid the cold temperatures

    Middle East: Religious clothing for women hiding their faces.

    Anywhere with hot summers: Sunglasses covering the entire eyes, making it impossible to see if you’re looking at the screen (which is a requirement for FaceID unlock).

  • by beauzero on 9/12/17, 7:33 PM

    I know it is supposed to be "local" or "onboard" only with the new processor but...mildly spooky.

  • by noncoml on 9/12/17, 7:56 PM

    You know what would be extremely useful at this point? An actual demo from a reporter, and not only for the FaceID, but in general for how the phone works without a home button.

  • by jaytaylor on 9/12/17, 7:32 PM

    Why'd Apple choose to make the iPhone X out of stainless steel? Titanium, for example, would be half the weight and much more interesting..

  • by return0 on 9/12/17, 7:58 PM

    What about beards? And honestly why is this a big deal? sounds as easy to fool as a fingerprint, and is still less secure than a password

  • by mzs on 9/12/17, 8:05 PM

  • by wt85 on 9/12/17, 7:39 PM

    Great way to integrate the government backdoor without actually publicly saying it.

    Catch the perp, get full access to the device. -Apple

  • by k__ on 9/12/17, 7:39 PM

    so instead of stealing your finger print it's now enough to get a picture?