Incident 32: Identical Twins Can Open Apple FaceID Protected Devices

Description: Apple's iPhone FaceID can be opened by an identical twin of the person who has registered their face to unlock the phone.

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Alleged: Apple developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed People with Twins.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
32
Report Count
21
Incident Date
2017-09-13
Editors
Sean McGregor

CSET Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Full Description

Apple's iPhone FaceID can be opened by an identical twin of the person who has registered their face to unlock the phone. In iPhone's FaceID technology a TrueDepth camera is used to read the contours of the user's face, and determine whether that face matches the benchmark of the owner's face. The Youtube channel LifeofTwinz displayed how two identical twins could unlock each other's phones by exploiting that system.

Short Description

Apple's iPhone FaceID can be opened by an identical twin of the person who has registered their face to unlock the phone.

Severity

Negligible

Harm Distribution Basis

Other:Identical twins

Harm Type

Harm to civil liberties, Other:Privacy

AI System Description

Apple iPhone's FaceID utilizes TrueDepth cameras to read the contours of a user's face and determine match/not match to the registered phone owner's face.

System Developer

Apple

Sector of Deployment

Information and communication

Relevant AI functions

Perception, Cognition, Action

AI Techniques

facial recognition, TrueDepth

AI Applications

facial recognition

Location

Global

Named Entities

Apple, TrueDepth, LifeofTwinz

Technology Purveyor

Apple

Beginning Date

09/2018

Ending Date

09/2018

Near Miss

Unclear/unknown

Intent

Unclear

Lives Lost

No

Data Inputs

facial contour

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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