According to a new security guideline issued by Apple, children and people who have a twin sibling should refrain from using the new Face ID unlock feature on their new iPhone X's. The guideline warns, "The probability of a false match is different for twins and siblings that look like you as well as among children under the age of 13, because their distinct facial features may not have fully developed." The recommended alternative? A good old fashioned passcode.
The Guardian points out that Apple's been trying to figure out a way to defeat potential hackers who attempt to use masks or other methods to bypass Face ID security. They describe it as two individual systems, one programmed to recognize a user and function properly in that regard, and "[an] additional neural network that’s trained to spot and resist spoofing defends against attempts to unlock your phone with photos or masks." Leveraging a neural network against such hacking attempts is basically hedging a bet; Apple believes masks won't fool the first system, which should just recognize a false face when it sees one, but if it does get fooled, then that's where the neural network kicks in.
It's important to note that the biometric data they're using to recognize faces stays on the phone, and developers are explicitly not allowed to use that data to develop their own biometric recognition systems. That data is privileged, highly-sensitive information, and Apple wants to treat it as such. The Guardian did note that their developer guidelines were updated to reflect that, as they now read, "You may not attempt, facilitate, or encourage others to identify anonymous users or reconstruct user profiles based on data collected from depth and/or facial mapping tools."
Criticism regarding Apple's new hardware offerings came swiftly, ranging from the humorous to the altogether worrying. As of right now, there are no laws barring law enforcement officers from using your own face to unlock your confiscated phone. The same goes for people who use Touch ID, Apple's fingerprint-scanning technology. The only way to ensure total security is, again, a passcode. And is there really such a thing as total security anymore?
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