14 DAY TRIAL // Face ID replaces Touch ID on Apple’s anniversary iPhone X, and since this is a completely new security technology on a device that’s expected to sell particularly well, there are a lot of questions to be asked about how it works and how it handles user data.
US Senator Al Franken has recently requested Apple to provide more information on this new facial recognition system, calling for the company to explain how it ensures data security and protects racial and gender bias.
In a long statement addressed to the senator, Cynthia Hogan, vice president of public policy for the Americas, emphasizes that Face ID was developed with security in mind, with no data leaving the device and Apple not having access to faces enrolled on an iPhone.
“Once it confirms the presence of an attentive face, the TrueDepth camera projects and reads over 30,000 infrared dots to form a depth map of the face, along with a 2D infrared image. This data is used to create a sequence of 2D images and depth maps, which are digitally signed and sent to the Secure Enclave. Face ID data, including mathematical representations of your face, is encrypted and only available to the Secure Enclave,” Hogan explained, pointing out that the face images aren’t saved and are immediately discarded after the authentication process is complete.
Nearly impossible to hack Face ID
The Apple official also explained that it’s incredibly unlikely for someone to be able to spoof the system by simply looking at the iPhone X. It’s estimated there’s a probability of 1 in 1,000,000 for a random person to be able to unlock an iPhone X, and this is a major increase from 1 in 50,000 for fingerprint scanning, the exec says.
As for races and ethnicities, Hogan points out that Apple worked with a “representative group” of people accounting for various factors, including gender, age, and ethnicity, and Face ID provides “a high degree of accuracy” for everyone.
Apple also guarantees that unlocking the iPhone X with a photo won’t be possible – this was actually a glitch of the Samsung Galaxy S8, which also features facial recognition, with the parent company then shipping an update to block such attempts.
The iPhone X is projected to go on sale on November 3, with the pre-order program to begin on October 27.