Apple Claims That Biometric Data Saved On iPhone 5S Is Safe From Law Enforcement
We posted the leaked photo’s of the iphone 5S’s fingerprint scanner, and now the phone has been released. Below is a video showing the new model of iPhone.
There has been a lot of buzz about the biometric fingerprint scanning home button and the privacy concerns that surround it.
washingtonpost.com
There were a lot of jokes to be had about the NSA and the fingerprint scanner announced for Apple’s newest iPhone — including the one above courtesy of Internet meme machine reddit. But you can put away your tinfoil hat, because the technology used in most identity-based digital fingerprint scanners means the data they store is very different than the kind desired by law enforcement agencies.
“Databases of fingerprints keep full images of all 10 fingerprints so that future techniques for feature detection can be used,” according to Joseph Lorenzo Hall, the senior staff technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
But for mobile devices, “the enrollment or registration will take a few scans to detect features and determine the center of the print, then it will turn the detected features into a reference data structure (a biometric template) that lists features and positions on the print.,” Hall explains. It would be that template, rather than a full featured scan that the device stores — and likely of only one or two fingers, like say both thumbs so you have a back up.
Because it’s only storing a few data points on select fingers, this data is very unlikely to be useful to law enforcement for things like matching a partial print from crime scene to an individual. So unless Apple did something radically different than earlier types of fingerprint scanners, the type data it will collect and store isn’t something that would likely be used to build some sort of huge fingerprint database.
And just in case that doesn’t put you at ease, Apple claims fingerprint data stored as part of the Touch ID will stay on the phone rather than be uploaded to some central database. It’s unclear if Apple will still have access to fingerprints despite that state of affairs, but assuming it doesn’t, it would be hard for the NSA to subpoena Apple for that biometric data.
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Apple displays how advanced the detail oriented the scanner is in their commercial. But then the main stream media is reporting “Because it’s only storing a few data points on select fingers, this data is very unlikely to be useful to law enforcement”.
Another way that Apple is trying to make it appear that your data is safe from snooping governments. Is that the data is stored on the phone itself and not in a central database. But it has been shown time and time again that government agencies have no problem accessing your phone itself.
or spy agencies, it’s no more difficult to activate your phone’s microphone the same way, letting them listen in on your conversations even when you aren’t making a phone call. In 2006 it was revealed that the FBI used this technique, called a “roving bug,” to listen into the lives of two alleged mobsters in New York. According to CNet, a federal judge deemed that technique legal under federal wiretapping law, even though a phone call wasn’t taking place. And while this kind of spying probably wouldn’t be useful en masse, if the data we now know is on file suggests something suspicious, that could be the justification to listen into your life.
There’s no evidence that PRISM is involved in this kind of spying, but there are other known cases where law enforcement has taken advantage of cellphone technology to track people. Something like this happened in the pursuit of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, when authorities tracked the GPS signal (albeit with the owner’s permission) from a cellphone left behind in the stolen vehicle. A similar FBI tactic was revealed in April in which Verizon allegedly reprogrammed a customer’s air card so it would accept phone calls and allow the FBI to track its location. (The target was Daniel David Rigmaiden, accused of leading a $4 million tax fraud operation.) In both FBI cases, the tactics were revealed through court documents, and we have no way to know how often they are used. This could be happening frequently or not at all—we have no idea!
If PRISM has the cooperation of companies such as Apple, Google, and Verizon, the government’s ability to listen in on any private conversation, whether taking place on a phone call or just in the same room as a mobile phone, would require little technical effort. Company cooperation could lower some legal hurdles, and what we’ve seen this week is that the true legal framework is completely obscured from public view. The White House defended the NSA’s actions by calling them “critical tool[s] in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States.” So if your recent communications look suspicious, the NSA’s discretion might be the only significant barrier to collecting intel directly through your phone.
It’s easy to see how smartphones’ advanced features could be useful in monitoring suspected terrorists and criminals. As we talk about the proper response to the NSA surveillance, we should also respond to what else it could do as cellphone technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, lest those key parts of our lives become yet another critical tool for spying.
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Listen in on phone calls, remotely activate the microphone and camera, monitoring text messages and online activity, track the GPS, but don’t worry your biometric data is safe? That government agencies and law enforcement can’t access it or use it? Get real!
