Apple Responds to Senator's Request for Info on Face ID Privacy and Security

[metsjetsfan]

What is the concern here. Unless you live in the woods and never been to a public place your face is probably in the hands of every government and hacker. Just walking into an airport they probably have hundreds of images of you already.

Touchid is probably more of a concern than this if they wanted to be concerned but secure enclave squashed all of those concerns.

 

[Macintoshrumors]

Did Al ask Samsung the same questions

Shortly after the iPhone X was unveiled, United States Senator Al Franken, who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook to ask several questions about the security and the privacy of Face ID.

Franken asked Apple to address his questions by October 13, 2017, which Apple did through a letter sent by Cynthia Hogan, the company's Vice President for Public Policy in the Americas.

In the letter, Hogan highlights its recent Face ID security paper and Face ID support document, which outline how Apple protects customer privacy and keeps customer data secure.

She also addresses several of Franken's questions, reiterating much of the information that's in the two documents and that's been previously published about Face ID. One of Franken's questions, for example, concerned how Face ID was trained, with Apple's response below:Hogan ends the letter with an offer to provide Senator Franken with briefings on Apple products should additional information be required.

Following his receipt of the letter, Franken today issued a statement where he said he appreciates Apple's willingness to provide information on Face ID.In addition to offering up a Face ID white paper and detailed support document, Apple has also provided information on Face ID through a series of interviews software engineering chief Craig Federighi did with various media sites.

Face ID will be available to consumers starting on November 3, the official launch date for the iPhone X. Apple plans to begin accepting pre-orders for the iPhone X on October 27.

Article Link: Apple Responds to Senator's Request for Info on Face ID Privacy and Security

 

[developer13245]

A political circle-jerk.

Stuart Smalley needs to look like he's doing something useful, instead of looking like the dangerously incompetent senator that he truly is (his letter was proof he couldn't read Apple's released information). As expected, Tim & Co Kowtowed in faux-respect, while getting the opportunity for more press coverage marketing for face ID.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Franken seems to be really concerned with privacy, surprised he's got that much time to spare with the whole "Equifax leaking the personal information of 143 million Americans" thing. Weird how Apple has to defend themselves to Franken when a multibillion dollar company can release the names, addresses and SSNs of 60% of adults in the whole country.

You've got all the parts. Do you not see how thing 1 would directly result in thing 2 happening? Seems pretty obvious.

Going from yahoo mail passwords, CC#'s, to SSN#'s, to fingerprints, to facial recognition, and finally your DNA, is a procession of increasingly personal information. Any government sitting on a pile of that should be held to the strictest standards of security and err on the side of privacy, and any company sitting on that data should be held to the same. Equifax had the positive effect of making the issue real to the ancient and absurdly clueless members of congress and senate, who otherwise couldn't care less. Like Franken or don't, that's you personal problem with him. But this is long overdue, and EVERY senator & congressman that even pretends to represent the country citizens or its security should be driving this discussion.

Luckily, in Apple's case, we have a CEO that does err on the side of privacy, but there are no guarantees, and anything can happen.

 

[makitango]

Why doesn't Al spend his time concerning himself with the main violators of privacy? He can fill the rest of his lifetime with his employer alone.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Reminder: Al Franken is the same clown that tried to go toe to toe with Gorsuch and looked like the fool that he is. Maybe he should go back to SNL. Make no mistake, Al is trolling and hoping this system doesn't work well with minorities so he can blast attack using identity politics. Just wait...it's coming.

Surprisingly enough visible light skin color can affect color in the near infrared spectrum so it could actually be less effective depending on skin tone. This type of research has been done for medical devices that use near infrared light for diagnostic purposes. The study I read found that a particular near infrared device was less effective for African Americans than white non-hispanics (although more effective for hispanics than white non-hispanics).

I'm sorry though, you just wanted to be outraged, not learn anything interesting.

 

[inscrewtable]

Seeing as the information Franken required was already implicit in the advert for the iPhone 10 showing many different ethnicities working, and judging by Franken's response it would seem that he expected and wanted Apple to ignore him so he could basically be a media whore. When it comes to privacy, there are more serious matters take this Guardian article on the information that Tinder keeps. https://www.theguardian.com/technol...personal-data-dating-app-messages-hacked-sold

 

[thadoggfather]

Did apple ask Al Frankenstein to ask them these questions so they could diffuse peoples' privacy concerns by next Friday (preorder time)?

 

[Ntombi]

Seeing as the information Franken required was already implicit in the advert for the iPhone 10 showing many different ethnicities working, and judging by Franken's response it would seem that he expected and wanted Apple to ignore him so he could basically be a media whore. When it comes to privacy, there are more serious matters take this Guardian article on the information that Tinder keeps. https://www.theguardian.com/technol...personal-data-dating-app-messages-hacked-sold

An advertisement is not the same as a response to a member of Congress. Franken is doing his job, getting Apple on the record as to what steps they’re taking to reduce risks in developing new technologies.

Also, a United States senator better be able to be interested in/investigate/legislate on more than one issue at a time, like any other fully functioning professional. Why do people keep acting as if he shouldn’t be asking Apple questions simply because other companies are also deserving of questions?

 

[B4U]

Apple’s letter (short version):

Dear Al Franken,

Read the material.

Love,
Apple

An even shorter version would be:

Dear Senator,

RTFMFFS.

Love,
Apple

 

[adamneer]

Tell us how you really feel about Al Franken, Trump voters.

 

[Tiger8]

Yes, here comes the "BUH maybe drumpf should go back to The Apprentice!!1 Ree!!" Nah dog, he loves this country and it's citizens way too much. #MAGA.

Except if they are Muslim, or of Mexican heritage, or women, unless he can grab them by the *****, and they are a perfect 10, like Ivanka..

oh Ivanka... 'if she wasn't my daughter!!!'

 

[Millah]

This is more of a publicity sideshow for Franken. He did the same thing when Touch ID was announced on the 5s. Trying to make himself seem “concerned.”

Did he question Samsung or any of the Android manufacturers when they released their completely half-assed attempts at facial recognition? Or hell, did he press them after they all copied Touch ID without the Secure Enclave? Samsung’s facial recognition can be spoofed with a photo, is on shipping products that rival iPhone volumes, yet he finds it necessary to grill Apple. Of all the companies, Apple is most concerning to him in regards to security and privacy. Yeesh

None of the other companies put in a fraction of the effort Apple does to protect biometric data, like the Secure Enclave as well as all the years of testing and prep work Apples been doing training Face ID to work securely and invisibly. Apple spent enormous engineering efforts to do biometrics responsibly. Of their OWN initiative, not because anyone told them to do it this way, but because people inside Apple actually care about these things. But that goes unnoticed and spun into something malicious.

Just a little circus Al Franken likes to put on with Apple products to appear tech-savvy and “concerned” for all us poor users. Thank goodness we have Captain Franken to save us from big bad Apple.

 

[MH01]

Why doesn't Al Franken have concerns about new Apple Watch band colors?

He does not want to "disappear" accidents happen to those that investigate watch bands...

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Our Representatives should spend more time passing a budget for our country versus worrying about things like this!

 

[macTW]

Great, open dialog. We need this in all aspects of the American society, not just data and security.

 

[purplehaze0]

How come this isn’t deemed ‘political ‘ yet Greenpeaces rating of apple is. I couldn’t give a flyer about this but can’t comment on something I care about.

 

[CarlJ]

Franken seems to be really concerned with privacy, surprised he's got that much time to spare with the whole "Equifax leaking the personal information of 143 million Americans" thing. Weird how Apple has to defend themselves to Franken when a multibillion dollar company can release the names, addresses and SSNs of 60% of adults in the whole country.

Mayyyyybe Franken is trying to keep himself in the news? Just maybe.

What makes you think he's spending a lot of time on this? He politely asked a short list of questions, Apple gave a polite list of answers. Apple doesn't have to defend themselves, because Franken isn't accusing them of anything - he's part of a committee the keeps tabs on security/privacy/tech issues for the congress, and he heard Apple was releasing new technology with potential privacy and security implications - it's entirely reasonable for him, as part of the job to which he was elected, to ask Apple officially to answer some questions about their new tech. I don't think Franken is trying to keep himself in the news, I think he's trying to do his job as a senator. You seem to be trying to derail the reporting of a simple question/answer session by using whataboutism.

 

[Tycho24]

Al Franken cares about privacy and security? That’s news in itself. ...Since when?

Al Franken has been using this as his shtick for YEARS now- literally any time any new tech comes out, he immediately... without understanding it whatsoever, condemns it on account of his “privacy” concerns.
Besides his comedy career, I’d say “clueless bumbling privacy advocate” is what he’s MOST famous for.

 

[wpmason]

I didn’t understand the obsession with 1 billion images, it seems like people thought it was 1 billion faces? And then there were theories that Apple got the images online from profiles? I mean how the hell is that supposed totrain Face ID to scan and recognise a 3D face model.


No fact checking goes on, Apple said over a 1 billion images, thousands of faces.
In fact, they said they “worked with thousands of people”, a direct quote which should answer privacy concerns over training images most people.

You’re thinking too simplistically here. They’re writing algorithms to Train their neural network based on sample data.

So they got “thousands” of volunteers, and took (probably) thousands of pictures of each of them under various conditions (lighting, hair changes, glasses, and all of the conceivable camera angles).

The camera angles part is especially important, since not everyone will hold their phone exactly the same way, plus, the AI can “stitch” the 2D photos into a 3D version of the face via computer magic.

So, yeah, billions of images. What’s not to understand?
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Have read that the x-phone has a feature to quickly disable the facial recognition system to prevent forced entry, not sure how it would work in practice though (how do you know you're about to be mugged...)

Like closing your eyes? It won’t work if you close your eyes.

 

[Bacillus]

Al Franken is a total waste of Senate resources.

Anybody should share a fair amount of suspicion when it comes to privacy and mass processing of user data/faces. It's part of the Congress job. Even Apple makes mistakes and takes risks at an unprecedented scale. You appear to have missed or ignored on what scale Apple shared customer specifics to Uber.
Your apprehension of a specific person - whether right or wrong - is of atomic relevance in this domain.

 

[PhoneI]

Al loves to get his name in the news. Thats it. Total waste of time.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Al Franken cares about privacy and security? That’s news in itself. ...Since when?

He's questioned TouchID and other technologies too. He has shown on many occasions that he cares about security.

When national rules changed to allow ISPs to sell your data, Minnesota was quick to vote an block them from doing so within the state (the first state to do so and do it nearly the same day the relaxed law passed nationally).

 

[SactoGuy18]

Despite what I think about Franken's politics, what he asked IS a legitimate question to ask given the issues with how easy it was to spoof the facial recognition system on Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 models.

 

[rockrigo]

lots of children up posting I see