Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness
In your haste to scaremonger, you have quoted an article about extracting RAW image data from the iPhone's camera sensor (not its fingerprint sensor). Quoted in bad faith, I might add, since the iPhone camera has APIs and SDKs that are specifically designed to share data with apps, which is not the case for the fingerprint sensor.
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I don't see why anybody would assume that the article talking about the data from the sensor being "turned into color and luminance values" would refer to the sensor of the fingerprint scanner.
The discussion went like this:
- David Munch said that the scanner "does not scan your fingerprint as such, only specific markers in your print."
- I replied by quoting an article that said that "The system then interprets the voltages generated by each cell to determine which one is under a ridge and which is under a valley. By combining this data the scanner can generate an overall image of the print, much as an EO scanner would, but with a much higher degree of fidelity."
- David Munch replied by saying that it still doesn't give you a fingerprint like "finger in ink and then pushed onto a paper".
- I replied by pointing out that he previously talked about fingerprint scans, which isn't the same thing as "finger in ink and then pushed onto a paper", adding that maybe the initial point about only scanning specific markers is valid during authentication while the data that is stored on the phone is "an encoded scan of the fingerprint".
- Andrew H. intervened by quoting an article that said that the phone "won’t store actual images".
- I replied by quoting an article that mentioned RAW data, that while it can be converted into an image, is not an actual image.
Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness
Let me explain something to you about your worry that someone "with an iPhone in hand... has everything they need" to gain access to your fingerprints. Stealing and then hacking someone's iPhone to get at their fingerprints is literally the stupidest, least efficient way of doing so. Newsflash: you leave your fingerprints everywhere you go, every single day. Thousands of them. On your computer mouse, your book covers, your cereal box, your coffee cup, your car steering wheel, your desk, your chair's arm rests, your doorknob, your kitchen faucet, your briefcase, your condiment jars. You even leave them all over the outside of your smartphone. It takes ten seconds to dust and tape a surface and walk away with a perfect print. Forensic technicians have been doing it for over a century.
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My initial intervention on this point has to do with the notion that the fingerprint data from the phone is less than the data from a normal fingerprint scan, when in fact it is more accurate and complete. And while we leave thousands of fingerprints around every day they aren't as reliable as some TV shows make it seem. You can look at the screen of your iPhone for that: how many smudges are complete clear fingerprints?
I mentioned the "with an iPhone in hand..." thing because David Munch also said in the post that I initially quoted that the data "is really useless, unless you use the same-ish software to decode it". I was simply pointing out that as it is clear that your iPhone needs to get stolen in order to retrieve the fingerprint, the "software to decode it" would be on the same device as the fingerprint itself so the 'not an actual image' that Andrew H. was complaining about can be turned into 'an actual image'.
Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness
This is a rather obtuse interpretation of motives. If someone's reason for forgoing a passcode is the inconvenience of having to enter it every time they unlock the phone, then there is a great deal of motivation to use the fingerprint scanner.
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You are assuming here that the reticence regarding the use of a passcode has to do with the inconvenience of having to enter it every time and not the inconvenience of having to remember another code. But let's take your example. If it's cold and you want to use gloves, or you use hand cream, or if your finger is wet for whatever reason, you can't use the fingerprint scanner and you have to enter a passcode.
Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness
This is a hysterical "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" criticism. Apple has taken the precaution of adding an additional layer of security to a new feature and you see it as a bad thing. Time to get some perspective.
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It's an additional layer of security that
is mandatory to a new feature that
is a layer of security.