Senator Al Franken has sent a letter to Apple's CEO, saying the fingerprint scanner on the new iPhone 5S threatens "substantial privacy issues."
Apple touts the scanner, known as Touch ID, as one of the best password tools in the world.” Senator Franken said fingerprints have obvious disadvantages: Unlike passwords, they can’t be changed.
“If someone manages to crack your password, you can change it — as many times as you want,” Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, said in a letter (PDF) sent Thursday to Apple CEO Tim Cook. “You can’t change your fingerprints, you only have ten of them, and leaving them on whatever you grab is not a secret.”
Franken added that a fingerprint uniquely identifies its owner, unlike a series of numbers and letters that make up a password.
“Let me put it this way: if hackers get your fingerprint, they could use it to impersonate you for the rest of your life,” he said. Franken’s office released the letter to the media on Friday.
Hackers and security researchers have already put up a bounty for Touch ID, the iPhone 5S as we reported in a previous post. The ever-increasing amount has already reached $13,000 - as well as several Bitcoins, maximizing the hackers.
Apple - party apps from accessing Touch ID data. It also said that the device only stores encrypted "fingerprint data" and not actual fingerprint images.
However, in his letter, Franken goes on to ask Apple if it has any plans to share Touch ID fingerprint data with the government or law enforcement agencies, and goes on to state:
“I would like to add that, regardless of how careful Apple is in implementing fingerprint technology, the company's decision will certainly show the way for other companies to adopt biometric technologies, resulting in our privacy being protected on their servers.”
