14 DAY TRIAL // Face ID is one of the most controversial features that Apple introduced with the iPhone in the last decade, with the WWW still debating whether it’s worth having a facial recognition system instead of a fingerprint scanning sensor.
The addition of facial recognition on the iPhone X triggered criticism from users and Apple rivals alike, and in most cases, the bad words are aimed at Cupertino’s claim of innovation with Face ID.
Apple critics say the iPhone X isn’t the first smartphone with facial recognition, pointing to the likes of Samsung Galaxy S8 as living proof. But as far as Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller is concerned, all the other phones with facial recognition can be described in one very simple way.
“They stink,” Schiller said in an interview with Dutch website Bright and touching several key features of the iPhone X, including Face ID.
Face ID much more advanced than other similar systems
Schiller went on to explain that Face ID on the iPhone X provides super-advanced functionality that no other smartphone can offer right now.
“They don’t work in all the ways we need Face ID to work. We’re very aware that through the years the simple thing, this Home button, that started as the way you click to get to the Home screen, grew into doing so many things for us,” he said.
“We added Touch ID, it took you to the multitasking screen, paged Siri, activated Apple Pay. We had to solve all of that. Other things that people have tried with face haven’t been anything like that. Face ID is a very unique implementation.”
The Apple marketing boss also commented on claims that Face ID could provide developers access with access to certain user facial data, thus impacting privacy in a concerning way. But Schiller explains that every developer is required to precisely tell users what data they need and how they are planning to use that data, so users are always in control of their information.
“Developers must be clear in their user privacy policies that they are using face data and what they are doing with that. So that you know. You have a choice to make whether you want to do that or not. You are in control. And also, every application that want to use face data must go through a special level of app review,” he explained.