Facial recognition looks good
Apple’s iPhone X offers new method of access found to be reliable in early reviews
W HEN Apple first detailed Face ID during its iPhone X launch event in September, speculation began immediately about just how safe the feature would be. It uses facial recognition to unlock the newest iPhone and replaces the more familiar, fingerprint-based Touch ID.
Skeptics jumped on the notion that Face ID could be fooled by someone wearing a mask of your face or a high-res photo. Or perhaps a mugger could force the iPhone X to open by holding your phone up to your face.
On Tuesday, the embargo lifted for the first iPhone X reviews, and in most cases the websites and publications that received early units had them for only 24 hours. As a result, the reviews are cast as “first impressions,” with a look primarily at the showcase new features — most notably Face ID. (You can see a roundup of reviews at houstonchronicle.com/iphonexreviews.)
It’s safe to say the reviews, combined with a white paper Apple released about the feature’s security, show concerns about Face ID’s safety are overblown.
Face ID not only replaces Touch ID, it also allowed Apple to remove the familiar
Home button that has been on every iPhone model since the original in 2007. This, in turn, allowed Apple to make almost the entire front of the phone a screen. The full-display effect is marred only by a notch at the top of the screen that holds various sensors, including those needed for Face ID.
When you first get a new iPhone X, part of the setup process involves training Face ID to recognize your mug. You rotate your head for a few seconds while the sensors scan your face, and the results are stored in a part of the iPhone X’s processor known as the “Secure Enclave.” The data from the scan is encrypted and does not leave the phone, according to Apple’s technical documents. This is the same approach taken to the fingerprint data for Touch ID.
The iPhone X periodically refreshes the scan, so effects such as aging and weight gain or loss are accounted for.
When you’re ready to unlock your iPhone using Face ID, you raise the iPhone X to your face and look at the phone. A projector sends 30,000 dots of light onto your face. This is read by a sensor called the TrueDepth camera, and the result is compared to what was scanned during setup. If there’s a match, the phone is unlocked.
Face ID is also used to make transactions using Apple Pay, the payment system that’s also associated with Touch ID.
Face ID is not the only way you can unlock the phone. You are still asked to set up a passcode, and if you like, you can disable Face ID and only use the passcode. Welcome to 2012!
One of the most striking things about the reviews that appeared on Tuesday is that Face ID is fairly reliable. Many of those writing about the iPhone X said they found they had to look directly at the phone, not just glance at it. Rene Ritchie of the tech website iMore said he had to develop an “eye-of-thetiger” stare.
Apple’s security white paper describes it this way: “When a face is detected, Face ID confirms attention and intent to unlock by detecting that your eyes are open and directed at your device.”
You can disable the requirement that your eyes be fixed on the phone, but that means it will unlock more easily, and thus be less secure. By default, the attention requirement is on, and I’d recommend you leave it that way.
If you’re still concerned about the phone being wrested from your grasp and Face ID used against you, Apple has included a feature called SOS that lets you press the sidemounted power and volume buttons simultaneously for two seconds to temporarily disable Face ID. You would then need your passcode to unlock the phone.
Several of the reviewers also went to elaborate lengths to try to fool Face ID by unlocking it, and were mostly unsuccessful. Using a high-res photo wouldn’t work because the TrueDepth camera looks for the contours of your face, not just the look of it.
Apple says there’s a 1-in1 million chance that someone’s face other than yours could unlock your iPhone X. The website Mashable brought in several sets of identical twins and found that, in some cases, the twin’s face would unlock the other’s iPhone. If you have a twin, better hope he or she is not an evil one!
Joanna Stern at the Wall Street Journal had a prosthetics expert create a lifelike silicon mask of her face. She slipped the mask on a friend, but Face ID would not open when confronted with the imposter.
While these reviewers didn’t have much time with their devices, these early reports should ease most folks’ fears. Face ID may not be perfect, but these indications are that it is at least secure.