Biometric locks ... there is a risk

My wife just got an iPhone 8 as a replacement for her old iPhone 5.
She cannot get the fingerprint recognition to work because her fingerprints are too worn from working on a farm growing up.
She previously had issues when somebody wanted to fingerprint her.

 

My wife has a couple of very fine creases across the middle of her thumb prints. Our S6 Android phones allow for 4 different prints. I solved her thumb recognition problem by added the same thumb three different times. It now works every time.

 

Fingerprints are the least of the problems with biometric locks.

Newer phones use facial recognition which can open a Pandora's box of ethical twists and turns.
Just imagine if big phone 'uses' (sells) faceprint data info to allow the two or three brick and mortar stores that are left to use 'their' smart cameras to target potential customers.....

I can see it now.
You're walking through the Amazon store in the Amazon mall.....and a salesperson runs up to you and shouts : "We're running a special on that hemorrhoid creme that you were looking for on the internet this morning, Mr Bagadoughnuts!!!"

...really could put a damper on that first date.....

 

I use a PIN, because no US government agency can compel you to enter your PIN or password.

Although, there have been reports from the EFF & ACLU that naturalized citizens or citizens that just look/sound foreign have been forced to do so during the current regime.


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I believe they are already beyond that. They can get facial recognition signatures from other sources. Or use your smart device ID codes (phone, wifi, BT, etc.) and find existing data broker services to match those electronic IDs to real names.

 

There's nothing so safe it can't be cracked by someone else with the skill and determination.

 

Nor data so safely guarded that it cannot be stolen and sold.....

 

I concur. I believe the "REAL ID" Act has the provision to make states take driver's license pictures in a manner such that they can be used in a faceprint database. One is not allowed to wear glasses when that picture is taken.

I look odd, since I'm myopic and couldn't see the small whatever I was supposed to look at. It was at least five feet away. Not a fighting chance.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Here's another creepy story. A little late for Halloween though.

Apple offered to help FBI unlock Texas shooter's phone

Apparently a dead man's finger could be used to unlock the iPhone. Do we need armor plated gloves now??

Many people think the FBI waited to they could blame encryption. If they had unlocked the phone and got the data, they could not make as strong a case.