“The iPhone 5s, released Friday, has a built-in fingerprint scanner, which will function as an alternative to conventional passwords,” Andrea Peterson reports for The Washington Post. “Some privacy advocates are concerned about how Apple plans to handle this highly sensitive data. Apple says it will only store the data collected via Touch ID on the device in an encrypted format rather than in a centralized server. Apple will also block third-party apps from accessing Touch ID.”
“But Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) wants details about Apple’s plan for the data collected by the system,” Peterson reports. “Thursday he sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking some tough questions about the fingerprint system, and noting how fundamentally different biometric identifiers are from previous ID methods.”
“Franken wants to know more about the technical possibilities of Touch ID and how Apple plans to use it,” Peterson reports. “For instance, if it’s possible to convert or extract locally stored fingerprint data in a format that could be used by third parties, and whether that can be accomplished without physical access to the phone. And what diagnostic information, if any, the iPhone 5s transmits about the Touch ID system to Apple and third parties. And he wants assurances that Apple will never share the fingerprint data or the tools needed to get them with commercial third parties.”
Read more in the full article here.
Franken’s letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook is here.
MacDailyNews Note:
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Motorola, T-Mobile respond to U.S. Senator Al Franken over Carrier IQ use – December 21, 2011
AT&T, HTC, Samsung, Sprint respond to U.S. Senator Al Franken on Carrier IQ – December 16, 2011
U.S. Senator Al Franken presses wireless companies and hardware makers for Carrier IQ answers – December 5, 2011
Apple, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA sued over alleged Carrier IQ use – December 5, 2011
Phone ‘rootkit’ maker Carrier IQ may have violated U.S. federal wiretap law in millions of cases – December 4, 2011
Carrier IQ is misunderstood, not evil – December 3, 2011
U.S. Congress Democrat Markey calls for FTC investigation of Carrier IQ software – December 3, 2011
Apple will remove Carrier IQ; how to block it on your iPhone now – December 2, 2011
U.S. Senator Al Franken wants answers from companies who install Carrier IQ software on smartphones – December 1, 2011
Senator Al Franken! Paging Senator Al Franken! – December 1, 2011
Video shows secret software on millions of Android, BlackBerry, and Nokia phones logging everything you do – November 30, 2011
U.S. Senate Democrats Franken, Blumenthal introduce mobile privacy bill – June 15, 2011
Recap of Apple and Google’s testimony before Senator Al Franken’s mobile privacy hearing – May 10, 2011
Apple, Google to face U.S. Senator Al Franken’s subcommittee in mobile privacy hearing – May 9, 2011
Apple’s Bud Tribble to testify in U.S. Senator Al Franken’s Judiciary Subcommittee hearings on mobile privacy – May 6, 2011
Steve Jobs: Apple isn’t tracking anyone; looks forward to testifying before Congress – April 27, 2011
Apple releases Q&A on Location Data: ‘Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone’ – April 27, 2011
U.S. Senate Democrat Franken to hold mobile privacy hearing; Apple, Google summoned – April 26, 2011
Steve Jobs on iOS location tracking: We don’t track anyone, but Droid does – April 25, 2011
Android phones regularly transmit location data to Google ‘at least several times an hour’ – April 22, 2011
U.S. Senator Al Franken demands answers from Apple’s Steve Jobs over iPhone tracking – April 21, 2011
