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Disabling the iPhone 5S's fingerprint reader - any suggestions?

K

kis

Suspended
Original poster
Aug 10, 2007
1,702
767
Switzerland
So, I'm sure I'm not the only one here who doesn't feel comfortable using the upcoming iPhone 5S's fingerprint reader. What can be done to disable it? Disabling it in the settings won't cut it as your prints will like still be stored on the phone - they just won't be used for authentication purposes.

Some screen protectors (e.g. Spigen's Glas.Tr) come with a small plastic cap that you stick on top of the home button. Would that be enough to disable the reader?



ps: if you're intending to use the fingerprint reader, please ignore this thread. I'm not interested in your personal opinion why it's a good feature.
 
kis said:
Some screen protectors (e.g. Spigen's Glas.Tr) come with a small plastic cap that you stick on top of the home button. Would that be enough to disable the reader?
Click to expand...

I think you are referring to Spigen's Jelly Home Buttons. Yeah they would probably do the trick as Spigen state that they do not work with the iPhone 5s.

Alternatively they have some better looking aluminium buttons, which should effectively do the same.
 
Why would you assume your prints would be stored on your phone even if you don't go through the setup process?
 
I don't understand your logic about disabling it in settings not being enough. There is no reason to think it would be stored if you don't activate it.

FWIW, the iPhone 5S doesn't even store an image of your fingerprint if you do enable it in settings.
 
In order to use the fingerprint scanner, an initial setup needs to be done so that the device can read your fingerprint. If you disable Touch ID and don't do the setup, then the device will never read your fingerprint. Though as someone else posted, even if you enable this feature the phone does not store an actual fingerprint image.
 
Zerilos said:
Why would you assume your prints would be stored on your phone even if you don't go through the setup process?
Click to expand...

BaldiMac said:
I don't understand your logic about disabling it in settings not being enough. There is no reason to think it would be stored if you don't activate it.

FWIW, the iPhone 5S doesn't even store an image of your fingerprint if you do enable it in settings.
Click to expand...

I guess there is a lot of mistrust as it was not too long ago we thought our emails and phone conversations were more secure and REQUIRED a court order to read. No they have the ability to look at all of your credit card transactions. This stuff just come out in little pieces each day, I hate tho think what it REALLY going on!
 
Zerilos said:
Why would you assume your prints would be stored on your phone even if you don't go through the setup process?
Click to expand...

Because the fingerprint reader isn't actually disabled on the hardware level. It will still read your print every time you touch the button. What happens to the latter is unclear - Apple never said that the print won't get stored anyway. It wouldn't make sense to store prints during the authentication process (theoretically, at that time, they should only be checked against the print in the database) but it's still conceivable that the reader can be tricked into storing a print every time you unlock the device. I'm not saying that's necessarily happening - but I'm not going to take any chances here.

I perhaps should also point out that I'm not worried about the government getting my prints (they already have them - in Switzerland, they're needed to get a new passport and I've traveled to the US before). What I'm worried about is that some lowlives get ahold of them and sell them like stolen credit cards on the internet. There are all kinds of "funny" applications for stolen prints.
 
Surely without going through the setup, the fingerprint data is worthless even if it did read and store your print without your knowledge, since it doesn't know who that print belongs to - you haven't given your name to it and confirmed your identity. Therefore the print the NSA receive automatically via PRISM2 could be that of literally anybody that just happened to pick up your phone.
 
kis said:
Because the fingerprint reader isn't actually disabled on the hardware level. It will still read your print every time you touch the button. What happens to the latter is unclear - Apple never said that the print won't get stored anyway. It wouldn't make sense to store prints during the authentication process (theoretically, at that time, they should only be checked against the print in the database) but it's still conceivable that the reader can be tricked into storing a print every time you unlock the device. I'm not saying that's necessarily happening - but I'm not going to take any chances here.

I perhaps should also point out that I'm not worried about the government getting my prints (they already have them - in Switzerland, they're needed to get a new passport and I've traveled to the US before). What I'm worried about is that some lowlives get ahold of them and sell them like stolen credit cards on the internet. There are all kinds of "funny" applications for stolen prints.
Click to expand...


get a different phone or wear gloves.
 
Lucille Carter said:
I guess there is a lot of mistrust as it was not too long ago we thought our emails and phone conversations were more secure and REQUIRED a court order to read. No they have the ability to look at all of your credit card transactions. This stuff just come out in little pieces each day, I hate tho think what it REALLY going on!
Click to expand...

They could do all of that stuff without your fingerprints, why would they need them now? Do you think that Apple is lying about this scanner and the 5s will collect our fingerprints without your knowledge? To what end?
 
kis said:
What I'm worried about is that some lowlives get ahold of them and sell them like stolen credit cards on the internet. There are all kinds of "funny" applications for stolen prints.
Click to expand...

No offense, but I think you're a little too paranoid. The data that Touch ID reads from your fingerprint is stored on the A7 SoaC. The only way anyone has any slight chance of getting to it is with a jailbreak tweak, and even then, I don't thing any tweak could get access to inside the chip. Also, if your phone is stolen, chances are the thief is only interested in the device itself and not what's on it.
 
Fingerprints are not stored on the phone, so your paranoia is unfounded. Even if somebody found a way to hack into the processor, the only thing there would be a data hash that would be useless.
 
kis said:
So, I'm sure I'm not the only one here who doesn't feel comfortable using the upcoming iPhone 5S's fingerprint reader. What can be done to disable it? Disabling it in the settings won't cut it as your prints will like still be stored on the phone - they just won't be used for authentication purposes.

Some screen protectors (e.g. Spigen's Glas.Tr) come with a small plastic cap that you stick on top of the home button. Would that be enough to disable the reader?



ps: if you're intending to use the fingerprint reader, please ignore this thread. I'm not interested in your personal opinion why it's a good feature.
Click to expand...

No offense but you should not buy iPhone5S.
 
Zerilos said:
They could do all of that stuff without your fingerprints, why would they need them now? Do you think that Apple is lying about this scanner and the 5s will collect our fingerprints without your knowledge? To what end?
Click to expand...

I guess for the same reason Apple, Google, Microsoft etc. lied about not cooperating with the NSA.

----------
merkinmuffley said:
Use your nose to push the button
Click to expand...

Now that's a creative solution :)

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Dented said:
Surely without going through the setup, the fingerprint data is worthless even if it did read and store your print without your knowledge, since it doesn't know who that print belongs to.
Click to expand...

That isn't a good argument, considering that you've already set up 50 different user accounts on your phone and it's very clear who the phone (and thus the fingerprint) belongs to.
 
kis said:
Probably yes - I've worked long enough in IT to become that way, I guess.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? Because it doesn't sound like you understand how it functions. Even if you use it, it stores an encrypted image inside the A7 processor. Even if someone somehow got to it, they would have to reverse engineer it to be able to get anything usable out of it. If someone wanted your fingerprint that bad, it would be easier to just left off something else you've touched.
 
This is my solution:

maskme_by_leconte-d6m86b0.jpg


Don't take it to serious . ;)
 
And you think your government database with a fully copy of your prints is more secure?

The question is, who are you that you think someone would want your prints more than selling the phone?
 
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