Security on a smartphone is rapidly becoming a necessary evil. The personal data stored on these mobile pocket computers is vast, from photos, videos, documents to simple contact details, the amount of vital information is growing daily.
Just in the way that you wouldn’t welcome someone entering your house and going through your documents drawer (is there anyone that doesn’t have one), you wouldn’t want someone unlocking your handset and browsing through your pictures.
This is just one reason that the Touch ID feature on the new iPhone 5s is a good idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TJkmc8-eyvE
Despite the fact that the announcement was made less than 48 hours ago there has already been a certain amount of scare mongering with certain “experts” claiming that people’s fingers are in danger from criminal masterminds looking to start a trade in stolen iPhones with accompanying fingers.
As well as this there have been concerns raised regarding the storage of fingerprint information, where it would be held and how the image would be kept.
The good news is that more information about this has now been revealed in the form of an announcement video. The video states that the iPhone takes a high resolution image of your fingerprint and stores it in an enclave of the phone’s A7 processor where nothing else can access it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple have confirmed that TouchID does not store images but instead stores fingerprint data.
One other feature is that TouchID will require a backup password and only that passcode can unlock the phone if the phone is rebooted or hasn’t been unlocked for 48 hours. This feature is meant to block hackers from stalling for time as they try to find a way to circumvent the fingerprint scanner.
So, even if you do have your fingers chopped off you will still be able to access your iPhone without them.
Spose it’s slightly better than having your eyes poked out 😉