I think the OP means literally, your fingerprints are on the outside surface of the phone.
I see your EFF deep link re forced decryption and I raise you a more recent deep link on upheld constitutional rights from a different circuit court:
SO, it’s an open legal question, whereas for fingerprints, it is absolutely not. Fingerprints are evidentiary, not testimonial, which seems to have different 5th amendment repercussions.
This is meant to make the grab and run type theft less attractive. All this speculation about someone hacking your email by lifting your fingerprint off the phone is at most a vanishingly tiny fraction of the cases and really just fodder for Cory’s next book. If anyone needs that kind of security they are likely to have it some other way.
I become less likely to believe anything a company tells me every single day.
Well, that’s where we differ. I disabled SIRI after a texting fiasco - sent my text to the wrong person and created a ton of confusion. I’m also one of those people whose voice really doesn’t work with voice recognition that well. Most of the search results I had to use a finger to access the link and since it mangled my voice command, it just wasn’t that excited by the feature. If I had to use my finger to access the results, why not just type in my search? I guess I should put some effort into training her to my voice, but I just didn’t see that much value in it. It’s faster for me to type in a correct term that keep asking SIRI six times over before she figures out what I’m saying. For someone who works with tech, I’m a real slow adapter and funny thing is, I was just talking to another member of my company and he carries an old school dumb phone with the best battery life and a physical keyboard - a lot of people in the tech community feel this way about Apple. I feel like Apple is very good at selling the public on these gee whiz things while meantime phones have gotten worse at transmitting voice, their battery life has gone down. and the touch screens are still impossible to read in sunlight. I like the apps, but there are very few features of my iPhone that I use which are unique to Apple. The fingerprint thing to me is not like, say, Google Cars, which will change our lives. It’s just another glossy gimmick.
I think you missed my point. I’m not talking about the hash of your fingerprints. I’m talking about the fingerprints you leave all over the surface of the phone.
ah yes. Of course it depends on which finger you train to unlock. some are more likely to be on the phone than others (and i actually think getting a good print from the screen is difficult, everytime i look for a print it’s all smeary, no clear prints.)
Right, this isn’t settled law. There is currently no 5th amendment guarantee in the US that documents protected by a password cannot be compelled. Some courts have said yes, some have said no. Probably heading for a supreme court case, but don’t rely on precedent to protect you at the moment (and based on current court composition, don’t rely on them finding there is such a protection either.)
Is any of this really a net bad thing? Cell phones often don’t work as well as landline phones for voice. Is there a point to be made here regarding the inferiority of portable phones? I’ve had both, and while there might be situational exceptions, I can’t think of any which really makes a landline compelling in an either-or situation.
Battery life is worse on smart phones than regular cell phones, but iphones do way more, and for all its better battery life, my old cell phone was also pretty terrible at receiving and making calls. (I also had to remember to charge it every few days. Turns out, it still needed to be plugged in once in a while.)
It’s true that touch screens really don’t do as well in direct sunlight. But I can’t imagine going back to a Newton’s display or a Kindle-style display just to be able to use a device in the full glare of the sun.
Yeah, I missed that. You are of course assuming you train the phone with a finger you control the device with (also looking at my phone I have maybe one print that might be liftable, everything else are streaks, i have no where near the number of clear prints you do). I wouldn’t do that, reduces likelihood print is on the phone. Fingerprints are still easier to obtain than the pin. But I bet more phones previously unlocked get locked with a print now. which is a step forward.
The fingerprint is most likely to fall when a particular person is targeted. It’s far safer than no pin at all. I still plan on using it (i currently use a password that isn’t a pin and isn’t 4 characters) although I’m not upgrading my phone 'til next year. Maybe with the new ipad.
Hmm, I’d say iPhone itself is a glossy device that literally changed everyone’s lives around where I live, and the fact that there are very few features that are unique to Apple after it popped up in 2007 is a testament to how big a deal their ability to make these previously unpopular technology to be familiar to the masses. Apple is not all glitz as some people would like to make it out to be.
Which goes to say, if this fingerprint thing do turn out to be useful (unlike siri, which is a dud) for people, it probably will make it very commonplace in other smartphones. I’ll say it’s better than NOT using PIN to lock the phone (which is a pain to use) - for someone to say this is secure or not compared to password is missing the point entirely.
And some don’t like the Beatles, “Just because.”
So easy even mythbusters can do it:
Perhaps but it is no different than a PIN in this regard, fingerprints are not magically more secure, and only marginally more convenient once you factor in the additional complexity.
The real anti theft prevention stuff is in iOS 7, Activation Lock, and is a major step forward for sure. No fingers required.
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/09/06/need-check-buying-used-iphone-running-ios-7/
Security through banality?
Shocking news! Attention whores want attention.
Oh good!
You won’t mind when you’ve lost your phone and realize a few hours later that your bank accounts have been cleaned out. It’ll only be slightly embarrassing when you suddenly tell the world through Twitter and Facebook how you evaded the TSA and look forward to doing Allah’s work very soon.
Uh, that’s not going to happen because it’s secure enough for me, as I just said.
If I have $50.00 from a bake sale, a locked tin box is secure enough for me. If I have my $200,000.00 life savings, then it’s not secure enough.
The most anyone could do is buy a lot of apps and music on my phone and send some fake tweets that would get noticed pretty quick.
Except that’s not going to happen because my phone is going to be locked and wiped as soon as I notice it’s gone.
That is the basic question. My phone, however, does not look like this nor would I produce such patterns during usage, The picture shown looks a little bit staged to me eyes (perhaps to make a point) or the holder has some very fatty fingers.
I’m not with the alarmists’ camp, but that depends on you noticing that the iPhone is gone AND the thief not being smart enough to place it so that it can’t be reached by GRS. Plenty of places for that and in any case easily enough to achieve with some foil.
I’m guaranteed to notice my phone being gone. The longest it could possibly take would be if someone stole it when I went to sleep and I didn’t notice until I woke up.
And even if they place it where I can’t wipe it, what will they do with it? Purchase some apps and music for my own account. IF they went through the trouble of making a copy of my fingerprints. Possibly costly, but in the end, an inconvenience to me. They’re not going to be able to clear out my bank accounts.
If they sell it, someone’s going to be upset when it stops working for them.
I’ve done a lot of replies to people about the security. What it comes down to, for what I have on my phone, I am excited for the chance to be able to purchase apps and music without having to type in a full password because it’s a minor inconvenience to do so.
If someone wants to go through the trouble of copying my prints and making a fake to steal MY phone, more power to them. I can imagine people with more sensitive things on their phones will want to think harder about using their prints.
