FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

News

Apple’s new Face ID makes the iPhone even more secure, company says

But privacy experts aren't fully convinced.

Apple’s brand new $1,000 iPhone X smartphone has one new feature that’s straight out of “Minority Report”: scanning your face to unlock the phone, make payments, enter passwords, and create and share animated emoji.

Of course, these features — and Apple’s collection of facial imaging data in the first place — have raised eyebrows with privacy experts.

The iPhone X (pronounced “iPhone Ten”) allows the phone’s front-facing camera to quickly scan your face; it’s a feature called “Face ID.” And it’s significantly more secure than using the fingerprint-based “Touch ID” feature that’s standard on the iPhone 7 series and 8 series, according to Apple.

There’s a one in 50,000 chance that someone can use their fingerprint to unlock your iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller told a crowd in Cupertino, California on Tuesday. With Face ID, that possibility is one in 1,000,000.

Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have generally praised Apple’s privacy technology and resistance to law enforcement intrusion, even when it comes to facial recognition. But when Samsung introduced a comparable feature earlier this year, legal analysts said that the rights that courts traditionally afford to someone for their passcode-protected content might not apply to information that can be unlocked by facial recognition technology.

The iPhone X starts at $999, goes on sale in October, and will start shipping to consumers on November 3.