Article from Rare by Bonnie Kristian.

My phone is a Google Pixel which I have a habit of dropping. A lot. In an attempt to keep it functional at least until the monthly payments are done, I’ve layered it up in a screen protector and a rubbery case. Somehow, I still managed to break the fingerprint sensor on the back, but that suits me just fine.

I know, I know — refusing to use a biometric login to my own encrypted device sounds like paranoid libertarianism. And maybe, at this point, it is. After all, the Obama administration’s high-profile fight to undermine encryption and the privacy protections it brings (against private criminals and government alike) ended in the feds essentially conceding defeat. Washington did not get an iPhone “master key,” and other tech giants, including Google, backed Apple’s stand for privacy.

Still, there’s good reason to think this issue is far from dead, and that the iPhone debacle was more about expanding federal authority than it was about real law enforcement aims. And that brings me to the iPhone X, Apple’s silly-expensive new phone that includes a new biometric login option: facial recognition.

FaceID is touted as a more secure option than the fingerprint login, TouchID. The technology is impressive, and its coupling with Apple’s encryption software is reassuring, but there’s no denying real risks to privacy. Deepak Dutt, who runs the tech security company Zighra and is optimistic about FaceID, describes two such risks at The Hill (emphasis added):

Read the entire article at Rare.