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Comment by xyst | Hacker News Reader

So if I can unlock my phone with FaceID + Apple Watch + Mask. Then in theory, wouldn't ANY person with a mask be able to unlock my phone? If you steal the phone at the right time, and unlock the phone while wearing a mask and still be in proximity to the victim wearing the watch. You will have an unlocked iPhone at your disposal. Quickly disable all of the security features, remove the SIM, and now you have a $1000+ item you can fence.

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Sure, I guess that’s not out of the realm of possibility. But when you’re holding your keys in front of you when walking to your car to unlock it in the parking lot someone could snatch them out of your hand, sprint to your (unlocked car), turn on the car (because they have your keys), and speed off into the sunset. Now they have a $20k item. Possible? Yes. Practical enough to lose sleep over? Probably not.

The watch vibrates on unlock with a prompt to lock the phone. It's also an opt in setting not an opt out.

It also only enables unlock and not other features that require face id

I see that, however is there a way to remotely lock the iPhone from the watch? There is a small window to tap the “Lock iPhone” button before it disappears and the phone is unlocked. Or a clever person throws the phone in a faraday cage and thus blocks the lock signal from the watch.

unlock is one thing. turning off security features requires another input of the actual pin passcode.

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