Apple Responds to US Senator's Concerns Over Face ID's Security and User's Privacy

By Jessica Ferrera, Christian Post Contributor Friday, October 20, 2017

Apple recently responded to the concerns that U.S. Senator Al Franken raised over the protection of the security and privacy of future users of the iPhone X's facial recognition feature called Face ID.

The senator from Minnesota is a ranking member and top Democrat on the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.

In Apple's letter, which was signed by the company's VP for Public Policy, Cynthia C. Hogan, the company informed Sen. Franken that most of the answers to his questions have been addressed in the previously released Face ID white paper and Knowledge Base article, which are both available on the company's public website.

According to Hogan's letter, copies of the said documents have been attached to their response letter that was submitted to Sen. Franken's office. While the two-page response did not elaborate on the entire algorithm of Face ID, Apple briefly explained to Sen. Franken the basic operations of this new security feature.

Apple's response letter emphasized Face ID's requirement of detecting an "attentive face" before it unlocks a device. In the said white paper, an attentive face means that the user's eyes are open and are looking straight at the iPhone X's sensor.

Only when an attentive face has been detected will the TrueDepth camera activate its "over 30,000 infrared dots to form a depth map of the face" which is one of the first steps of how the Face ID works and unlocks a device.

The iPhone maker also assured Sen. Franken that the mathematical formulation and every data related to the facial mapping of a Face ID user is kept in the chip's Secure Enclave and "never leaves the device."

One of the concerns raised by Sen. Franken in his earlier letter of inquiry was if Face ID was programmed to recognize "a diverse set of faces, in terms of race, gender, and age." To this, Apple explained to the public official: "We worked with participants from around the world to include a representative group of people accounting for gender, age, ethnicity, and other factors."

Sen. Franken seemed to have found the answers he was looking for from Apple's response and said in a follow-up statement: "I appreciate Apple's willingness to engage with my office on these issues, and I'm glad to see the steps that the company has taken to address consumer privacy and security concerns."