“When Apple first announced the Touch ID feature for the iPhone 5s, we were treated to a few weeks of misplaced paranoia that, if you didn’t know any better, would have you believe that Apple was stockpiling user fingerprint data with the intention of selling them to the highest bidder,” Yoni Heisler writes for TUAW.
“Despite a number of security precautions Apple implemented with Touch ID, many in the blogosphere were quick to ring alarm bells. Senator Al Franken even went so far as to write a letter to Tim Cook airing his concerns,” Heisler writes. “And then there were an endless stream of articles detailing the myriad number of ways people might be able to easily spoof a Touch ID user’s fingerprint. The epitome of this bizarre paranoia came in the form of a unintentionally comical Toronto Star article which listed 10 reasons why Apple’s Touch ID is a ‘bad idea.'”
“Yet oddly enough, when Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 earlier this week with its own fingerprint authorization scheme, no one seemed to pay it any mind,” Heisler writes. “Never mind the fact that Samsung’s fingerprint sensor will be available to third-party developers and that the company announced a partnership with PayPal to enable mobile purchasing.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We await Al Franken’s letter to Samsung with bated breath. Oh, wait, that might not generate decent enough publicity.
Samsung’s half-assed implementation is such crap that nobody will use it anyway.
Apple leads, the rest follow like brain-damaged puppy dogs.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Anonymous claim Apple’s Touch ID is linked to U.S. government surveillance – October 1, 2013
Ars Technica: Apple’s Touch ID and 64-bit A7 are deceptively large advances in the iPhone’s evolution – September 24, 2013
U.S. Senate Democrat Al Franken demands answers from Apple CEO Tim Cook over iPhone 5s’ Touch ID – September 20, 2013
Security researcher: Apple iPhone 5s Touch ID is truly better security – September 19, 2013
iPhone 5s Touch ID iPhone fingerprint scanner earns praise – September 19, 2013
Apple’s Touch ID is revolutionary, paradigm-altering technology; Steve Jobs would be quite proud – September 17, 2013
iPhone 5s: Once again Apple leaps ahead with Touch ID fingerprint recognition; a big enterprise win for Apple – September 10, 2013
Apple reveals flagship iPhone 5s with Touch ID, the world’s first and only 64-bit smartphone – September 10, 2013
Everyone knows Apple’s will work and Samsung will not.
when Apple releases a new iPhone, it’s all over the media. You almost can’t escape it.
When Samsung releases a new phone you don’t really hear about it. The ones that do hear about say “meh”. The ones that don’t hear about it the same day eventually start seeing commercials and are like “oh a new phone from Samsung? When did that happen?”
I heard about their latest smart phone to come out; it’s a piece of plastic crap as usual.
Payola.
Samsung does buy negative press for their rivals and higher scrutiny for them. It’s pretty much 100% certain the outfits that would have been vocal about this got ‘encouraged’ by their ad managers or editorial chiefs (in contact with Samsung) to veto the publication of any articles they wouldnt ‘fix’.
Samdung announced that it will open the fingerprint API to 3rd party developers too. That should prove very entertaining.
Yes! I can see the headline already; Millions of Android users biometric data stolen!
Yet another reason to stick with iOS.
Because Apple. Duh.
Oh I can’t wait to see the Senator do…NOTHING! I hope the blogosphere not paid off will bring this up.
Exactly, like he’s been for Minnesota… he’s done NOTHING.
He’s a tard.
Bat cave of a mouth too.
I barely scan the Apple criticism as sour grape and also for copy cat Samsungs.
Apple is apple of my eyes and I will buy and support them as long as they continue to innovate and make quality products as they have.
On behalf of cerebrally challenged puppies, I strongly protest them being associated with Android handset makers.
Yeah MDN, try using another analogy.
Instead of puppies, how about ‘cerebrally challenged politicians’?… Everyone loves puppies.. Politicians?… Not so much.
Problem is- with Samdung Touch ID the paranoia is JUSTIFIED!!!
Why did Apple’s Touch ID generate paranoia, but Samsung’s Galaxy S5 fingerprint reader flies under the radar?
Because ALL of the fears that could be attributed to Apple’s Fingerprint Reader, people just assumed wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell working on Samsung’s…
I live in Minnesota. I copied the article and sent it to Senator Franken.
Simple answer without counter-paranoia…
Because Apple’s Touch ID came out first.
While finger print ID systems had been in products for many years, Touch ID used a new technology that was news worthy in of itself. It was the first major phone to have finger print ID technology at all and thus the hype (both positive and negative) about it.
What were people expecting… the same paranoia based hype each and every time everyone else introduced fingerprint ID systems in their phones?
Fortunately, I do not hang out with too many paranoid people, but of the ones I do know, they exclusively use Android.
Logic could be gnarled to presume that all Android users are paranoid, and all clamor about Apple and NSA collaboration has its genesis among them. 😉
So, give Senator Franken a call: 202-224-5641
Ask why he’s so quick to jump on a great American company while ignoring a convicted, foreign IP thief.
Just followed my own advice and politely, yet firmly, expressed my concerns to Senator Franken’s office person. The woman on his end of the line was courteous and told me she’d pass along my concerns to the senator.
First to market gets the press.
Second to market gets nada.
The age-old adage of pioneers getting the arrows…
Easy. It’s old news now.
Try visiting a Disney resort or park as they scan every person’s fingerprint as they enter and see how few people even think twice.
I call BS. I’ve been to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, both in the last 30 days and neither park requires a fingerprint scan to get in. I would have an issue giving them that information.
It appears I posted too quickly. It looks like they are doing this at Disney World in Florida. I’m not seeing posts about the SoCal parks, though they may be using this on annual pass holders, though I never saw any scanning devices. My concern is over how secure this data is from the gov.
You figure print is tied to the new magicband system. Your finger print connects you and your band. They must match for you to enter the park. It was definitely a quick way to confirm ID’s, but it does raise the question as to who else would have access to the data.
I think it’s as simple as “nobody really gives a sh*t about Samsung”. Sure they sell a lot of phones, so that makes them important in financial-type discussions (e.g. market share), but when was the last time (if ever) that you saw the media truly get excited about a Samsung phone?
Samsung’s fingerprint reader flies under the radar because no one cares enough about Samsung even to point the radar in their direction.
——RM
Dogs don’t chase parked cars.