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Renzatic

Suspended
This:


Tim should just fire a letter right back asking Franken why he is so hot for Apple to violate their customers privacy when they can't even legally even admit to it... and yet the first chance he gets Franken jumps on his own fake pedestal and accuses Apple of doing exactly what he is making them do.

Asshat.

(I am not a fanboi- far from it. But I just hate hypocrisy in any form... )

It's only hypocritical depending on what Franken's stance on the NSA is.

There are quite a few people in the house and congress who are NOT happy about PRISM in the least, and have been actively fighting against it. The problem is, there are slightly more senators and reps who are just fine with it, so nothing can be done from their position.
 

Windlasher

macrumors 6502
Jan 11, 2011
483
111
minneapolis
The original question was alluding the idea that a touchscreen device could capture your fingerprint and store it on the device.... thus being able to be sent elsewhere after the capture. This isn't possible. Touchscreen technology on iPhones/iPads, etc. do not have that capability. The screen itself isn't sensitive enough to read fingerprints. Nowhere does the original poster say anything about law enforcement gaining physical access to your device and obtaining your fingerprints via conventional methods.

If you don't think they can get your fingerprints off that GLASS if they really want them you are kidding yourself.
 

Giev

macrumors member
Aug 20, 2013
94
7
I disagree. This is the absolute best time for it. People are concerned about privacy and since a fingerprint can't be faked, it's the best form of security available. The only people concerned about it are the one's who don't understand what it is. Everyone else is excited for the best security available.

You are mixing security with privacy. Fingerprint doesn't provide no privacy whatsoever.
 

tongxinshe

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2008
1,064
651
From what Apple says, even if the Government asked for it, it would be impossible for Apple to get that information. It is stored in a part of the chip that has no communication to Apple servers, or any other servers for the matter.

This is what I understood at least.

There is one thing you didn't read out of the lines from Apple's description -- that Secure Enclave actually belongs to NSA, and NSA prohibited Apple to access it in the generic method, only for the two methods NSA approved (unlocking the phone and iCloud account identification). On the other hand, NSA has free access to the whole thing, including all of the other GPS, M7 data on the phone.

The senator just want to find out whether there is any remnants the regular US government could also lay some hands on.
 

henryhbk

macrumors regular
Jul 26, 2002
134
134
Boston
I'm pretty sure that if you have physical access to a touchscreen device, there are ways to get the owner's fingerprint data—even if the device lacks a fingerprint scanner.

I was going to say if you have physical access to any smooth object the user has touched you have their fingerprints (and you get DNA with that as well!). In how many movies/tv-shows do they get the perp's prints by handing him a glass . It's way easier to simply dust the object and take a picture than crack apple's encryption and reverse engineer the fingerprint if you have the object.
 

tbrinkma

macrumors 68000
Apr 24, 2006
1,651
93
The original question was alluding the idea that a touchscreen device could capture your fingerprint and store it on the device.... thus being able to be sent elsewhere after the capture. This isn't possible. Touchscreen technology on iPhones/iPads, etc. do not have that capability. The screen itself isn't sensitive enough to read fingerprints. Nowhere does the original poster say anything about law enforcement gaining physical access to your device and obtaining your fingerprints via conventional methods.

You might want to pay more attention when you claim someone is wrong.

I'm pretty sure that if you have physical access to a touchscreen device, there are ways to get the owner's fingerprint data—even if the device lacks a fingerprint scanner.
 

OtherJesus

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2005
378
132
Bay Area, California
I logged in just to post what a joke franken is. Others have already posted what I feel. franken just wants to know why Apple isn't giving him the data personally. And if they don't he's going to pissed and start a witch hunt.
 

tongxinshe

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2008
1,064
651
You mean like when you get your driver's license at the DMV?
Most likely the government already has your fingerprint on file and, if not, there are much easier and full proof ways to get it than hacking into people's iPhones.

It's really different. When NSA can get the fingerprint data as well as the GPS data plus the M7 data in *REAL TIME*, it's an endless power it has on you when an official of the NSA wants to enforce you into something.
 

tbrinkma

macrumors 68000
Apr 24, 2006
1,651
93
You are mixing security with privacy. Fingerprint doesn't provide no privacy whatsoever.

A fingerprint doesn't provide any *security* either. At most it provides identification. It doesn't provide authentication *or* authorization (the other two aspects of security).
 

0x0x0x0

macrumors 6502
I am far more concerned about the NSA and the issue of spying then I am of some company. A company has to actually respond to the customer. Whereas the government does not give a rats ass.

I'm surprised there wasn't a PS along the lines of "Oh, and by the way, how can our guys from the NSA get access to the fingerprint scans- it'd certainly make their job easier?.."
 

NoneOfYourB

macrumors member
Jan 23, 2013
59
4
But a way to gather millions of people's prints automatically is a lot easier than sending 1 person into each Starbucks to collect and fingerprint coffee cups.

Has Starbucks already issued a statement that they don't take fingerprints
from coffee cups?
... I don't believe them anyway.

With everything that is being done right now,
your phone calls tapped, voice analyzed, face photographed,
emails read, internet traffic monitored,
why should you be concerned about the very unlikely event that your
fingerprint could be reconstructed from a hash.
 

wigby

macrumors 68030
Jun 7, 2007
2,752
2,716
But it's ok, it's Apple. If this was Google collecting this information, you guys would be up in arms.

I don't think you can define this as "collecting". Collecting would indicate a central database where a list can be accessed by Apple, NSA, etc.
 

s0k0ban

macrumors newbie
Sep 18, 2013
9
0
I'm pretty sure that the NSA can force Apple to upload fingerprint information to the cloud after all the hype around the Touch ID gets chilled down, as part of the patriot act.

If not now so with the next OTA update, and all they have to do is to change some small letters in some privacy EULA that nobody reads.

Since iOS devices exchange encrypted data with Apple servers 24/7, it will be really hard to detect, especially when the NSA probably got smarter after the scandal, and will only require Apple to grab fingerprints from selected UDIDs.

Personally I don't believe Apple when they claim they cannot get the clear snapshot of the finger and they just store a hashed version of it. You must have
the clear one to hash it in the first place.
 

DollaTwentyFive

macrumors 6502a
Nov 11, 2010
747
4
Parts Unknown
Has Starbucks already issued a statement that they don't take fingerprints
from coffee cups?
... I don't believe them anyway.

With everything that is being done right now,
your phone calls tapped, voice analyzed, face photographed,
emails read, internet traffic monitored,
why should you be concerned about the very unlikely event that your
fingerprint could be reconstructed from a hash.

My fingerprints don't need to re reconstructed from a hash. I'm in a business where my professional licenses require about 3 different entities to fingerprint me. They have had mine for 30 years. I'm more concerned with everything else you mention.

Also, if anyone wants to say "if you aren't doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about." I will

A) say thank you for sounding like my elderly mother
B) blast them in the face because that's missing the fracking point!
 

calaverasgrande

macrumors 65816
Oct 18, 2010
1,291
161
Brooklyn, New York.
I am far more concerned about the NSA and the issue of spying then I am of some company. A company has to actually respond to the customer. Whereas the government does not give a rats ass.

That is kind of the point. The NSA has been spying on us with the aid of "some companies".
Those being Google, Apple, and surely many others not as high profile.
 

DesterWallaboo

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2003
520
726
Western USA
If you don't think they can get your fingerprints off that GLASS if they really want them you are kidding yourself.

Yes... if they decide to show up to my home, seize my phone and then fingerprint...... they can certainly get my prints. HOWEVER, going back to what I was ACTUALLY talking about... the iPhone touch sensor tech for the screen cannot read your fingerprint.

----------

You might want to pay more attention when you claim someone is wrong.

You completely missed my comments didn't you?
 

gwangung

macrumors 65816
Apr 9, 2003
1,113
91
Personally...

....I think "clown" fits most of the posters here better than Franken.

Most of these requests are to put the information on the record, with as few intermediaries as possible. I doubt Franken is as technologically illiterate as posters make him out to be....but a great deal of his constituents almost certainly are. Playing the illiterate and getting the answers on record is certainly of service to his constituents.
 
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