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Privacy and the 5s - Government can get a copy of your fingerprint?

Even if they have a finger print. There's separate data bases for most of that. Also, what they do have, is at the local level, not federal. It's usually on card base and stuck in a file cabinet. The NSA does not have your finger print....

I would say there's a complete disconnect from what you know where your fingerprint is recorded, and any kind of criminal database. Effectively police make and keep their own database, and you have to be arrested to land a print in it.
 
scaredpoet said:
One continuing problem with this conspiracy theory: TouchID doesn't make the user specify which fingers are being scanned, nor whose fingers. It can be your thumb, index, pinky... the tip of your nose, or your cat's paw.

This means the collection of data the NSA or any government agency would get from TouchID would be pretty dirty. You MIGHT guess that some of the scans might be from the owner of the iPhone, and you could be wrong: one or two could be a wife's or friend's or a pet's scan, and you'd essentially have bad data.
Click to expand...

Exactly. It wouldn't be a very reliable information source for them.
 
Like some people have said already, don't they have my finger print already? I know that I had to give them my thumbprint when I got my Driver's License. And what's the big deal if they have it? It's not exactly hard to get it.
 
Please leave the OP alone. If starting threads like this and worrying about it gives their life meaning, who are we to judge?
 
I will chime in as i bought a 5S with no intention of using touch ID from the get-go.

It doesn't bothe me that the govt has my print...indeed they do.

What bothers me is for my fingerprint to be associated with my phone use...because I dont know what future uses they will come up with for Touch ID. Surely they will try to monetise it further.

I would recommend for everyone to see the documentary Terms & Conditions May Apply. Then let's talk.
 
CTHarrryH said:
google and facebook etc. collect more information about you than the government does and people don't seem bothered by that. I'd worry that Google will get ahold of your fingerprints and figure out how to make money on it.

If the gov wants my fingerprints again they can just ask and after the shutdown is over they can tell me where to deliver my hands so they can get them.
Click to expand...

How would Google serve you ads based on your fingerprint?
 
thatoneguy82 said:
Like some people have said already, don't they have my finger print already? I know that I had to give them my thumbprint when I got my Driver's License. And what's the big deal if they have it? It's not exactly hard to get it.
Click to expand...

I think the people who are upset by this are upset for a different reason than you are thinking.

In your example, the government has your fingerprint, but can't really do anything with it unless they have you in custody. With the new touchid, they could take your print that they already have, and locate you by matching it to a database of touchid prints that also have a GPS location. Basically real time tracking of whoever they want. Like I said, I don't care either way, but I think the people saying, "they already have my print, so what!?" Are missing the point of the argument.
 
CTHarrryH said:
google and facebook etc. collect more information about you than the government does and people don't seem bothered by that. I'd worry that Google will get ahold of your fingerprints and figure out how to make money on it.

If the gov wants my fingerprints again they can just ask and after the shutdown is over they can tell me where to deliver my hands so they can get them.
Click to expand...

How would they get access to it in the first place? The phone doesn't allow anything else to access the fingerprint. I agree that people should be worried more about Google and Facebook, but with the current implementation, I think it is safe.
 
cavemanit said:
Just read this article:
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/th...nner-has-shady-government-ties-anonymous-says

Aren't you worried that the government can possibly create a fingerprint database that pulls a feed from your device and can be used to track your every movement?
Click to expand...

not only did apple say 50,000x that your fingerprint data stays on your phone and can't be transmitted anywhere, but fingerprint scanners have been on laptops for years. Why did nobody cry foul about those? only when the iPhone comes out people start whining about fingerprint scanners?

Also who the hell cares if the government has your fingerprint? it already has the fingerprint of every criminal and immigrant that has set foot in this country. And it already has the fingerprint of the millions of law abiding citizens who get gun permits, global entry..blah blah blah. plus everyone in california who got a drivers license had to give them a thumbprint.
 
cavemanit said:
Just read this article:
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/th...nner-has-shady-government-ties-anonymous-says

Aren't you worried that the government can possibly create a fingerprint database that pulls a feed from your device and can be used to track your every movement?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's not what the article says. It states that Apple have made fingerprint scanning acceptable and easy so that other companies and industries will also introduce biometrics elsewhere.
 
Who gives a flying **** if the government has your fingerprint. Are you being a shady person? If you've done nothing wrong why are you worried about it?
 
lets all come up with the most nefarious things the evil government can do with our fingerprints.

I'm guessing CIA agents will start using 5 of our 10 fingerprints to frame us for crimes we didn't commit, and then waterboard us in some obscure european prison for kicks, cuz that's what they do for fun.
 
Col Ronson said:
not only did apple say 50,000x that your fingerprint data stays on your phone and can't be transmitted anywhere, but fingerprint scanners have been on laptops for years. Why did nobody cry foul about those? only when the iPhone comes out people start whining about fingerprint scanners?
Click to expand...

That's because any feature that Apple implements in an iPhone, many more people get access to technologies that normally don't get much attention.
 
danilko1 said:
Even if they have a finger print. There's separate data bases for most of that. Also, what they do have, is at the local level, not federal. It's usually on card base and stuck in a file cabinet. The NSA does not have your finger print....

I would say there's a complete disconnect from what you know where your fingerprint is recorded, and any kind of criminal database. Effectively police make and keep their own database, and you have to be arrested to land a print in it.
Click to expand...

It's not in a file cabinet anymore. Feds/Government have my prints because of the work I do. When they took it, it was all electronic, and the screen to show my prints look almost like the screen on the iPhone when you set it up the touch ID.
 
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