Apple recently made the bold move to implement Face ID, while removing their iconic fingerprint scanner and home button. But there are many experts in the field are doubting it will be as safe Apple says.
What is Face ID?
Face ID is the new facial recognition technology on Apple’s flagship device; the iPhone X. Apple, which is known for discarding technologies more aggressively than rivals, dumped its well-tested Touch ID fingerprint system that has been available in iPhones since 2013. It can also be used to make purchases on the device.
What are experts saying about Face ID?
“How it’s going to work out is not clear to me,” said Natarajan, vice dean, and professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. “I was really looking forward to buying this, but now, I’m going to wait six to eight months to see what the reports are.”
Marc Rogers, head of information security for Internet security firm Cloudflare, said he doesn’t think the scanner will be fooled by an ordinary photo.
“However, the jury is out as to how secure it is,” Rogers said in an email. “Knowing Apple, it will be good, but the big question is will it be good enough.”
And he said asking consumers to trust Face ID may take a while. “Touch ID was great because it required you doing something you normally do, touch the home button,” he said. “Taking a selfie to pay for something doesn’t feel natural to me. When people find things awkward, they don’t use them. That’s why before Touch ID, less than one in five people even had a PIN on their phone.”
Whether consumers adopt Face ID depends on finding more uses, said Ramon Llamas, a research manager at IDC. “Outside of acting as a password, what else are they going to bring to the table?” Llamas said.
Apple said that app makers including Mint and E-Trade and 1Password were planning to implement Face ID. Michael Fey, the lead iOS developer for AgileBits, which makes the 1Password app, said he believes Face ID is a “natural progression” from using fingerprint identification. Fey said implementing Face ID “under the hood” was similar to adding Touch ID to 1Password.
