Facial recognition scares me. I like the fact we can use it to catch the bad guys at events.
The police should arrest anyone with a mask or face covering.
This facial recognition never leaves the iPhone and does not use an image. It does not work on a technology that would be usable at a distance such as would be required for use at an event.
The Apple technology uses an infrared system that projects scanning dot onto the face being presented and then measures the distances of several hundred dot scan returns, mapping a mathematical 3D representation of the user's individual face. It also assures that the eyes are open and looking at the iPhone. Such scans would never work at any appreciable distance.
This mathematical map is then stored in the "Secure Enclave" inside the iPhone's dedicated Encryption Engine processor which is not accessible to the iPhone's data processor which handles all Apps and other data. That data is not stored in a raw form but is stored as a one way HASH, which will be compared to a new one way HASH which is calculated each time a scan is done to see if it is within an acceptable range. Apparently the odds that any user's iPhone could be unlocked by a random person's face is 1 in 1,000,000. The previous gold standard for security, TouchID which read the subcutaneous ridges and valleys of fat under the fingertips, was only 1 in 50,000. Even Apple cannot access the encrypted data inside the "Secure Enclave" memory inside the Encryption Engine processor.
There is no data base of images being amassed by Apple for later use as some have alleged. There simply is no way for Apple to even access that data even if there were an image to collect. The fact is that everyone who has a state government drivers' license or ID card has already provided a digitized image for such such a database for facial identification at events. It is totally unnecessary for a business such as Apple to provide one for the government; they've already got one.
I highly agree with the concept of arresting people who wear masks in riots or demonstrations, or ARMOR, because they are there for the purpose of fomenting violence. . . but not when skiing, sky or skin diving, etc. In fact, most states have laws allowing those arrests but the Liberal pukes occupying the mayoral chairs in cities where those riots and demonstrations occurred have prohibited their police from making those arrests.
If you have access to Netflix, then watch the movie "Whatever Happened to Monday?". Futuristic movie, where your eye is used as ID recognition to open doors. Yeah, been done in other movies, but this is a great movie. Yup, bad guy cuts out woman's eyeball to use it to access her home. I told the wife that with the iPhone X, we'll have to worry about someone chopping off your head to use it to access your stuff. Now that ought to scare you.