Associated Incidents
When Apple announced its $1k iPhone X back in September, we learned they were ditching the home screen button log-in for something snazzier: facial recognition.
The company touted it as a more secure upgrade to its existing TouchID feature — but, it turns out the tech can be easily tricked by human genetics.
Apple’s upgrade
The new system, called Face ID, utilizes a new TrueDepth camera, which projects 30k “invisible dots” onto a user’s face creating a 3D model that verifies identity and unlocks the screen.
The tech is also equipped with an A11 bionic chip, which allows it to enlist machine learning to detect changes in a user’s appearance. As Forbes writes, “you can put on glasses, wear a hat, grow a beard. Even wild makeup will not fool Face ID… it will know you.”
Apple claims this system only allows for a 1 in 1m chance of someone else accessing your phone, compared to TouchID’s 1 in 50k.
Sounds great — unless you’re an identical twin
Mashable experimented and found that the phone’s Face ID couldn’t distinguish between sets of identical twins: they could easily log into each other’s devices. This wasn’t an issue with TouchID, as identical twins have different fingerprints.
Roughly 3.2% of the world’s population are twins, and about one-third of them are identical — so, this isn’t an insignificant issue.
But to be fair, even the parents of identical twins have a tough time telling them apart, so how much can you really blame tech here?