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What's the point of a fingerprint scanner?

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MacDarcy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 21, 2011
1,011
819
Is this even necessary? I just don't get the need. For security? Why? You've got a pass code lock if you want it.

I don't want to have to rely on my iphone to read my fingerprint every time I wanna use it. Too many things to go wrong. Why complicate things?
 
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user-name-here

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2013
1,111
1
MacDarcy said:
What's the point of a fingerprint scanner?
Click to expand...

How about never needing to remember countless website passwords? To simply have to have your fingerprint scanned and safari then inputs your password to log you in.

Or how about the ability to make payment transactions more secure?

Obviously if you don't want it then simply don't use it and stay with your old password method instead.
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
We are don't know how it will be integrated. Many think it will tie into the new Apple keychain. You'll never need to enter a password again yet passwords for all services will be saved on the phone so you won't need to enter them.
 
3

3rd Rock

macrumors 6502
Aug 10, 2012
459
1
Over here
Sorry OP, but this question and others just like it was asked not too long ago. Could you please use the Search feature ? :confused:
 

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K

KenAFSPC

macrumors 6502a
Sep 12, 2012
626
26
A fingerprint scanner, iOS keychain, and fingerprint functions for developers would:

  1. eliminate the long alphanumeric passwords currently required by government and corporate networks;

  2. provide secure authentication for mobile payments, including purchases from the Apple Store, as well as wireless payments made to vendors using near field communication or Bluetooth;

  3. simplify web login/password entry for the web, whereby a fingerprint scan would populate the user's login/password and personal information from a secure password store (IOS Keychain) in Safari;

  4. eliminate login/password entry for third-party iOS7 applications (e.g., your bank's IOS app), by allowing third-party developers to substitute fingerprints for passwords;

  5. provide seamless multi-user support, which would benefit home users, as well as corporations and governments, that share one device (e.g., iPad, future Macbooks) among multiple users.
A fingerprint sensor is key to (a) corporate and government customers and (b) mobile payments. Corporations and government agencies currently require 8-12 digit alphanumeric passwords to unlock a phone; a fingerprint reader would eliminate these passwords, if properly implemented. Mobile payments haven't taken off because of concerns over security; a fingerprint reader, or a pin combined with a fingerprint reader, would largely address those concerns.

Developers will not have direct, low-level access to the hardware to grab your fingerprint. However, developers should eventually be able to call an Apple software routine that would generate a password key (I.e., a long number of 1s and 0s) based on the unique combination of your fingerprint, other biometric data, and the device hardware, thus enabling them to substitute finger scans for alphanumeric passwords.

The technology Apple acquired from Authentec for the iPhone and iPad is very different from the fingerprint technology found in prior laptops and phones. It is not optically based. It uses RF, I.e., radio waves, to penetrate and image beneath the skin. The sensor can also act as a trackpad for gestures. More information below:

The most noteworthy public product AuthenTec has is not its run of the mill finger print scanners, but a new "Smart Sensor" that acts as a sophisticated touch pad controller.

While just 13.3mm wide by 3mm high and a scant 1.30 mm thick, the company's first Smart Sensor, announced in May just as Apple began its frantic efforts to buy the firm, packs a 500 pixel per inch, 192x8 pixel detection matrix and all the necessary finger print matching technology and security encryption to serve as a fully self contained finger recognizer.

AuthenTec notes that its "semiconductor-based sensors are based on both capacitive and radio frequency (RF) technology that detects an image of the fingerprint ridge and valley pattern beneath the surface of the skin, thus capturing sharp and clear fingerprint patterns from the live layer. This approach, which is in marked contrast with optical, thermal and other solutions that simply read the surface of the skin, gives AuthenTec sensors significant advantages in image quality and in the protective coatings that the sensor can image through."

Additionally, AuthenTec has developed "anti-spoofing technology" that "dynamically measures the properties of finger skin placed on the sensor while the finger is being scanned. This patented technology ensures that only real fingerprints are read by converting the properties of the skin into digital data which are delivered to the host computer for analysis. AuthenTec anti-spoofing technology then compares the data with expected properties to ensure fingerprint authentication."

The company notes that "because of the approach, anyone who attempts to swipe the finger of a dead person in order to access important physical or logical data would fail."

A touch pad for iOS devices

In addition, AuthenTec's Smart Sensor can also be used to provide touch-based navigation, functioning as a "precise cursor control for text editing," with support for "360 degree mouse navigation," "optical joystick emulation," or as a "unique turbo-scroll feature for rapid browsing of long emails, contact lists or websites," according to public information released by the firm prior to its acquisition.
Click to expand...

Apple wouldn't spend $340 million to acquire AuthenTec, and then tens of millions more to add the functionality to their phones if they didn't have a plan to make this feature/function work in a compelling way.
 
K

KenAFSPC

macrumors 6502a
Sep 12, 2012
626
26
sparky1499 said:
I wholeheartedly agree with this.
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Virtually every analyst that follows Apple -- as part of their day job for large financial institutions -- has said that the IP5S is likely to have fingerprint scanning technology. Supply chain analysts have confirmed that Apple is or was manufacturing fingerprint sensors, and the only question left is, "for what." Apple also included a IOS7 fingerprint scanning tutorial code as part of an earlier IOS7 beta.

The market believes that the next iPhone will incorporate a fingerprint scanner. If Apple were not going to include such a device, or the device were for the iPad only, then Apple almost certainly would have done something by this point to apporpriately set expectations for investors.

It's coming. Bank on it.
 
Z

zipster

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2011
393
258
Nothing.

Just Apple fans hyping up a useless feature (but will at the same time, pan all of the features of the Galaxy S4).
 
M

merkinmuffley

macrumors 6502a
Dec 3, 2010
615
582
user-name-here said:
How about never needing to remember countless website passwords? To simply have to have your fingerprint scanned and safari then inputs your password to log you in.

Or how about the ability to make payment transactions more secure?

Obviously if you don't want it then simply don't use it and stay with your old password method instead.
Click to expand...

If this can do that, I'm in line to buy one. If it can't, I'll wait for the DNA enabled phone, pull it out of your pocket, spit on and if the DNA in the spit matches - you're good to go. I assume NSA is working with Apple on the sensor to do this.
 
K

KenAFSPC

macrumors 6502a
Sep 12, 2012
626
26
MacDarcy said:
Is this even necessary? I just don't get the need. For security? Why?
Click to expand...
If you have have little or nothing of value worth protecting, as is the case for most teenagers and college students, then you probably aren't going to see much value in added security. If you are older and have bank, credit card, investment, and retirement account information, or confidential corporate or government data, all stored on your phone, then you may be more concerned about security.

Many adults simply refuse to store such information on their phone for fear that it (the data and/or account information) might be stolen. Apple probably hopes that the fingerprint sensor will address some of those concerns to encourage more users to "put everything into one device," thus further tying those users to the Apple ecosystem. Apple also probably wants to establish IOS as a secure -- or the most secure -- platform for mobile payments.
 
R

Radiating

macrumors 65816
Dec 29, 2011
1,018
7
The fingerprint scanner is going to be faster than entering the pin number. You already turn your phone on by pressing the home button when it's locked, now it's going to turn the phone on and unlock it in one go, instead of having to take a half dozen steps.
 
5

576316

macrumors 601
May 19, 2011
4,056
2,556
Just out of interest and because it's not worth making a new thread, what time are new iPhones typically available to be ordered from? I presumed it would be something like midnight PST which would be 8AM GMT. How does it work?
 
Z

Zerilos

macrumors 6502a
Dec 18, 2012
903
24
MacDarcy said:
Is this even necessary? I just don't get the need. For security? Why? You've got a pass code lock if you want it.

I don't want to have to rely on my iphone to read my fingerprint every time I wanna use it. Too many things to go wrong. Why complicate things?
Click to expand...

Not having to re-enter my passcode 40 times a day would make it awesome in and of itself.

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zipster said:
Nothing.

Just Apple fans hyping up a useless feature (but will at the same time, pan all of the features of the Galaxy S4).
Click to expand...

Even most S4 owners that I know pan it's new features and unnecessary bloatware.
 
B

borgqueenx

macrumors 65816
Jul 16, 2010
1,357
258
Zerilos said:
Not having to re-enter my passcode 40 times a day would make it awesome in and of itself.

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Even most S4 owners that I know pan it's new features and unnecessary bloatware.
Click to expand...

im going to unlock it just to use the sensor and then lock it again.
 
M

MacDarcy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 21, 2011
1,011
819
KenAFSPC said:
If you have have little or nothing of value worth protecting, as is the case for most teenagers and college students, then you probably aren't going to see much value in added security. If you are older and have bank, credit card, investment, and retirement account information, or confidential corporate or government data, all stored on your phone, then you may be more concerned about security.

Many adults simply refuse to store such information on their phone for fear that it (the data and/or account information) might be stolen. Apple probably hopes that the fingerprint sensor will address some of those concerns to encourage more users to "put everything into one device," thus further tying those users to the Apple ecosystem. Apple also probably wants to establish IOS as a secure -- or the most secure -- platform for mobile payments.
Click to expand...

I see your point. But isn't most cyber theft done over wifi? Thieves and spies don't even need to have your iphone in their possession. They can get all your vital information via connections. I hear this is a real problem, especially when traveling overseas. So what good is a fingerprint scanner to guard against that?

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Zerilos said:
Not having to re-enter my passcode 40 times a day would make it awesome in and of itself.

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True. The more I think about it, I can see its benefits. I just hope it works flawlessly, otherwise it'll be more annoying than good.
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