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Comment by songgao | Hacker News Reader

I really don't think fingerprint as personal key is a good idea. It's not as private as your personal passphrase. A lot others might have it. (e.g. US Visa Office took my fingerprints when I was applying a Visa). If it's not private, how could it be used as private key or master password?

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But your personal passphrase is only secure until someone watches you enter it from afar. None of these solutions are perfect, but the fingerprinting is significantly better.

The sensor is complex enough that I very much doubt you could just use a printout of a fingerprint to fool it.

You are right. But passphrase can be reset; fingerprint is permanent...

EDIT: as to sensor complexity, if it can be built into a home button, it'll be implemented on other fingerprint readers. Before long, people would be collecting fingerprints using this kind of advanced sensors..

I saw a Mythbusters episode where they defeated a fingerprint scanner with a home printer copy of a fingerprint they lifted off a CD case with superglue.

Good thing that one doesn't have to go looking for a CD case - there are probably prints on the touchscreen :)

I'm not sure all fingerprints are created equal, though. Maybe this one detects depth in some fashion?

It is sub-epidermal, so maybe it is really more complex then just pressing photocopy of a fingerprint in front. Also, I think the steel ring around the button detects capacitance. Pretty sure, these cases have been evaluated by their engineers. Afterall, Apple will know about it, their ipad was used in MI to get into Kremlin. Ha.

Although imperfect, it does need to be offered for people like myself who hate dealing with passwords, don't want to goof around with password storage apps, and aren't paranoid about someone lifting their fingerprints.

> I really don't think fingerprint as personal key is a good idea.

It's not. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6361968

Fingerprint is (currently) about as secure as a personal passphrase while providing much better user experience.

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