The scary side of Touch ID

In this, the inaugural Private i column, I want to freak you out just a little bit. In the coming weeks, this column will help Mac and iOS users understand the implications of the latest security exploits, privacy hacks, and encryption options, and how to protect themselves or take advantage of them, as the case may be.

But I want to start with Touch ID and why it’s a technology that needs more discussion as its use as an identity validation has broadened to other apps in iOS 8.

Apple

Fingerprint-based identification isn’t new, nor are biometric markers for authentication, like scanning one’s optic nerve or handprint or blood-vessel pattern or the like. They’re the thing of sci-fi movies made thoroughly real, routine, and boring with modern technology. Prior to the addition of Touch ID to the iPhone 5s, however, the fast majority of biometric ID was at fixed locations, like the entrance to a secure facility or even at my children’s after-school care program, where my fingerprint read by a USB-connected reader let me check them out from a Windows PC.

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