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Comment by wmf | Hacker News Reader

Many people have proposed using biometrics to authenticate people to servers, but that's not what Apple is doing. Your fingerprint only authenticates you to your phone. So someone would have to copy your fingerprint and steal your phone to commit fraud. And if your phone is stolen, the fingerprint just needs to secure your phone long enough until you can remotely wipe it.

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A stolen phone is likely to be covered in fingerprints. A small piece of sellotape and the thief has your world at their fingertips.

I'd really like to see how such an exploit would work before losing sleep over it. Fingerprint tech has moved a long way forward in the past few years. If it doesn't work, we don't need to use it.

Once your fingerprint is compromised, you can never rely on it again.

But you have ten fingers...

All of which have an impression on the phone, that someone could duplicate.

The scanner scans subdermally, so it's a little trickier than just lifting fingerprints.

I don't deny that it's replicable, just saying that the hacker would probably only have info on one finger.

All of which that 'someone' would need to pick out of the thousands of smeared / other people's fingerprints on the same phone's surface.

So over the years of use I have to remember which ones have been compromised? Unlocking the iPhone with the ring finger of my off hand defeats the whole point of the convenience this is supposed to bring.

It would make for a good conversation starter, though.

Who says you have to actually use your finger?

Why not something disposable you keep on your keychain/ring/necklace/tie/earlobe that looks like a finger to the reader?

I just imagined a world where everyone is carrying around lopped off digits on their keyrings.

"What the fingerprint sensor may actually deliver is the biggest leap forward in mobile payment technology that we’ve seen since the credit card."

This article is saying that though that's all it does now, it will be the new payment process. I just don't see that happening.

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