One reason not to use the iPhone fingerprint scanner
Need a reason not to protect your smartphone with an iPhone fingerprint scanner? A district court judge has ruled that police can require suspects to unlock their device with their fingerprint, but they can't if it's protected by a passcode. When you want to keep information away from the police, it might be better to rely on four numeric digits than a physical element.
The judge's decision was based on the idea that "giving police a fingerprint is akin to providing DNA or handwriting samples, which are legal," the Virginian's Pilot reports in its report on the ruling. That doesn't mean a suspect's phone can be accessed with just a fingerprint — some apps require an additional passcode to unlock — but it does mean an iPhone could be "naked" in the eyes of the law if its owner relies solely on the TouchID feature.
iPhone fingerprint scanners are awfully convenient, at least when they work. They make it easier to buy digital goods, secure information with that unique identifier, and pay for goods or services without having to access a wallet. But they also come with security risks .
Passwords can be changed. It’s alarming, and research has shown that most people wouldn’t be able to remember a unique password for every website they visit even if they tried. But passwords aren’t immutable. A user can directly change the passwords they use on Twitter, Facebook, and other services — it may take a while, but tools like 1Password or Dashlane make it easy. There’s a strong suspicion that the time will come when similar tools will be able to change a fingerprint just as easily.
It's only a matter of time before someone finds a way to trick biometric information and the iPhone fingerprint scanner. So what should users do when that finally happens? Nothing is safe in the modern Internet age — that much is clear considering all the data breaches that have been reported in the past year — and it's foolish to expect anything different just because our fingerprints are involved.
