iPhone X News: Analyst Raises Concerns Over App Developers Access to Face ID Data
Some people are raising concerns over their privacy and security after learning that Apple lets app developers access Face ID data.
Face ID was unveiled in September along with the iPhone X. It replaced the fingerprint-sensing technology and used facial recognition as the sole biometric authentication feature on the said device.
According to Reuters, it was able to obtain a copy of a contract that said developers will be allowed by Apple to access "certain facial data" under the condition that they would never sell the information and only if users gave their permission.
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The report added that the types of data that app developers can collect include the "rough map" of the user's scanned facial image as well as over 50 facial expressions. What alarmed other people even more, Reuters said, was the fact that the contract also allowed developers to save the facial data to their own servers.
According to Reuters, American Civil Liberties Union senior policy analyst Jay Stanley said: "The privacy issues around of the use of very sophisticated facial recognition technology for unlocking the phone have been overblown."
He added: "The real privacy issues have to do with the access by third-party developers."
In a document released shortly after the Face ID unveiling, Apple assured users that Face ID was secure to use especially since it stored the facial recognition data inside the device's chip -- the Secure Enclave -- and not in a remote cloud service. However, some say that the fact that the company is letting app developers save this data on their own servers somewhat defeats the purpose of the Secure Enclave embedded on the iPhone X.
Meanwhile, Apple maintained they remain dedicated to protecting users' privacy.
"We take privacy and security very seriously," company spokesman Tom Neumayr told The Washington Post. "This commitment is reflected in the strong protections we have built around Face ID data—protecting it with the Secure Enclave in iPhone X—as well as many other technical safeguards we have built into iOS."
