Face ID Security News: Apple Exec Says Data Is Never Shared With Third-Party Developers
In a recent interview, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, reassured Face ID users that no data is being shared with third-party developers.
Face ID, the new technology introduced by Apple this year, is currently only available on the iPhone X. This is where the device's TrueDepth camera creates a user's facial map and uses it as biometric authentication data.
Previously, a report from Reuters that claimed Apple and third-party developers have an agreement that provides the latter with access to certain Face ID data surfaced. This was initially shut down by an Apple representative and was recently discussed in Schiller's recent interview with the Dutch publication Bright.
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In the interview, Schiller said: "I think we've worked really hard to maintain the trust we have with users about how this information technology is and isn't used. First of all, no Face ID data goes to third parties. So what you enroll with Face ID, what you use to unlock your phone, that's an algorithm that is created and encrypted by the Secure Enclave"
When the Face ID feature was launched, Apple maintained that the obtained data and the algorithm that was used by the TrueDepth camera were saved in the A11 Bionic chip's Secure Enclave and not anywhere else outside the device.
However, the Reuters report claimed third-party developers signed a contract with Apple where they were allowed to have access to some TrueDepth camera and Face ID data. Apart from accessing 'a "rough map" of the user's facial image, developers were reportedly allowed to store data in their own servers.
But Schiller explained that what third-party developers actually did was use an API that Apple created which allowed them to instruct an iPhone X camera "to track facial movements" and let users access app features like filters and stickers similar to Snapchat.
"That's different than Face ID. They don't have all the access to the data that Face ID has for that," Schiller reiterated.
The iPhone X is now available starting at $999.
