Apple’s FaceID Could Be a Powerful Tool for Mass Spying

wired.com ^ | 09/14/2017 | Jake Laperruque

[BenLurkin]

Consumers are already questioning whether FaceID could be spoofed. And it's also possible police would be able to more easily unlock phones without consent by simply holding an individual’s phone up to his or her face.

But FaceID should create fear about another form of government surveillance: mass scans to identify individuals based on face profiles. Law enforcement is rapidly increasing use of facial recognition; one in two American adults are already enrolled in a law enforcement facial recognition network, and at least one in four police departments have the capacity to run face recognition searches.

Still, until now, co-opting consumer platforms hasn’t been an option. While Facebook has a powerful facial recognition system, it doesn’t maintain the operating systems that control the cameras on phones, tablets, and laptops that stare at us every day.

Apple’s new system changes that. For the first time, a company will have a unified single facial recognition system built into the world's most popular devices—the hardware necessary to scan and identify faces throughout the world.

[BenLurkin]

one in two American adults are already enrolled in a law enforcement facial recognition network

"Enrolled" how?

Nobody asked me if I wanted to be "enrolled."

[Menehune56]

I believe your photo is now automatically enrolled your state’s facial recognition database as a condition for getting or renewing your driver’s license. I know last time I renewed I wasn’t allowed to wear my glasses for the photo even though I’m rather blind without them.

[House Atreides]

To conflate “spying” with Apple’s new facial recognition is a joke. I wish more companies would adopt Apple’s “hardcore” dedication to their customers’ privacy.

[DHerion]

can you hold a photo of the person in front of the iPhone to get access?

[Newbomb Turk]

I will just stick with my iPhone 6 and its now antiquated technology and save myself a grand plus no facial recognition.

[Sign Petition to Arrest Comey]

But, but, but... iPhone X is the bestest. Its 1 mm thinner and even got a whole entire half a gram lighter

[SamAdams76]

Horse is out of the barn. All our major cities have street cams that are monitored by law enforcement - or rather, store footage that can be called up later if needed as I doubt they have the resources to personally monitor the tens of thousands of street cams out there. They are in the subways, in the retail stores and at the coffee shops. These cameras are already incredibly cheap and they are getting cheaper. They are connected to the Internet with their unique MAC addresses mapped to static IP addresses, so any law enforcement with the rights can access them.

Ditto for our highways which are being taken over by these cams, which can snap a sharp picture of your license plate at 90 mph. This is same technology that is making tollbooths relics of the past. Soon there will be no need for police chases. The car will simply be followed electronically until it reaches its destination.

The Boston Marathon bombers were caught with these street cams. The looters down in Florida in the recent hurricane were identified and arrested thanks to these cams. So while there is an Orwellian dark side, there are also benefits.

[BenLurkin]

[Swordmaker]

FUD article on suspicion that Apple's FaceID could be used for "mass spying" on iPhone users. Absolutely not possible. Like the fingerprint system, the face ID data of FaceID is retained not as an actual photo of the user, but instead as a mathematical map of the user's face, with that data kept in a one-way HASH inside the "Secure Enclave" in the "Encryption Processor Memory" which is, by hardware design, inaccessible to the data processor of the iOS device. This means that it can only be used for unlocking the iOS device and that any App, no matter how it may be inserted into the iOS device, cannot access that data because the processor that has access to storage and the data bus has ZERO access to the Secure Enclave.

The article is filled with hypothetical scare tactics of the FUD artistes. "Apple doesn't currently have access to the faceprint data that it stores on iPhones. But if the government attempted to forced Apple to change its operating system at the government's behest—a tactic the FBI tried once already in the case of the locked phone of San Bernardino killer Syed Rizwan Farook—it could gain that access. And that could theoretically make Apple an irresistible target for a new type of mass surveillance order." Wired then postulates they could then order Apple to scan all iOS devices to find a specific person by his or her image. Such a feat would require a complete re-design of the HARDWARE to allow the data processor to actually access the Secure Enclave, something that is not possible with any current iOS device.

They also raise the specter of police warrantless searches of user's iOS devices by FaceID by merely pointing it at users' faces to unlock. However, the user has to actually look at the iOS device for it to work. FaceID also will not work without the user entering his or her passcode after just five hours of not being used. While they may get you to look, it would still most likely be an illegal search. — PING!

Apple FaceID FUD Article From Wired
Ping!

The latest Apple/Mac/iOS Pings can be found by searching Keyword "ApplePingList" on FreeRepublic's Search.

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me

[SamAdams76]

Also, I should mention that IPv6 (the new IP protocol) has the capability of 340,000,000,000,000 unique addresses (340 trillion). That compares to the 3.4 billion unique addresses available under the original IP protocol - which was at one time thought to be plenty. But we are running out of addresses to assign.

So with IPv6, that amounts to 45,333 unique addresses for each of Earth's 7.5 million human beings.

This will allow billions upon billions of webcams to be placed across the United States with trillions of addresses left over.

The cost of a basic webcam will be under a penny in about 20 years and they will be the size of a ladybug.

What this means is that webcams will be everywhere. It will not be unusual for a regular suburban street to have thousands of webcams. In the city, there will probably be several million webcams on every block.

The point I'm trying to make is that we are entering into a world in which everything will be able to be seen by anybody.

There is no way to avoid it either.

[discostu]

Pretty much all technical advances since the invention of the microchip can be used for mass spying.

[SueRae]

Ya think? I don’t do Apple..but it won’t take much before it’s commomplace..

[I want the USA back]

Like every other technological development, some people will use it for illegal purposes, and law enforcement will be unable to resist the vast database at their fingertips.

[SamAdams76]

Actually I apparently stand corrected in my previous post. There are not 340 trillion unique addresses in IPv6.

There are 340 trillion trillion trillion.

That's 34 followed by 37 zeros.

340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

That's 4.5333333e+28 unique addresses for every living person on Earth.

Each human could have billions of web cams assigned just to them.

[PIF]

No. It only works once. If some one else tries it, they have to enter the correct passcode. Which is apparently why the onstage Apple demo did not work on the first iPhone tried - someone else had used it before the demo and the phone automatically locked.

[PIF]

It only recognizances a 3-D image.

[TexasFreeper2009]

and the fingerprint scanners weren’t ?

lol

people need to get over it.

[for-q-clinton]

This is bullcrap.

First Microsoft has been doing this for years with Kinect and even with their windows phones.

Second, the ID is stored on device. I was about to go with an iPhone, but not now. It’s not because of security—that’s the one thing I like about Apple...they do take privacy seriously. Google doesn’t because they make money on selling your personal info. The reason I can’t go with iPhone is because they got rid of the fingerprint reader. Looking at your phone to unlock is sucks. Try driving and unlocking your phone. I have tried it and it stinks. Even when it works perfectly—it is way to distracting.

So now I’m looking at the LG V60. It’s not perfect but I can tweak it to make it better. Android is a hot mess of an OS, but at least it’s customizable.

I really wish Windows Phone was successful because it truly is the best interface. But it didn’t so now I have to settle for issues in ios or android.

[for-q-clinton]

Soon our national debt will surpass IPV6 :-)

[SamAdams76]

I think you might be right!