Face ID relies on a bunch of hardware including a TrueDepth Camera, Infrared Camera, Dot Projector, and Flood Illuminator for recognising a user’s face. The Dot Projector projects more than 30,000 invisible dots onto a user’s face to build their facial map. The Infrared camera then reads the dot pattern and captures an infrared image, which it then sends to the “Secure Enclave in the A11 Bionic chip” to confirm the face and match it against stored data.
The Flood Illuminator relies on invisible infrared light to identify the face even when the iPhone X is being used in dark. What are the other features of Face ID on Apple iPhone X, According to Apple’s white paper on Face ID security, the feature relies on the direction of a user’s gaze, and uses “neural networks for matching and anti-spoofing” to unlock the iPhone with a glance.
It also claims the feature can “adapts to changes” in a user’s appearance, so even if you grow a beard or put on makeup to transform yourself, Face ID is still supposed to work accurately. When setting up Face ID, a user will also need to create a passcode, so that in case this fails, the iPhone X can be unlocked using the code. Apple says users won’t have to enter the passcode so often with the Face ID and claims it is accurate in recognising faces.
Finally, Apple Face ID can also be used to make payments via Apple Pay, though a user has to authorise this feature. What are the security features of Apple’s Face ID on iPhone X, Apple says “the probability that a random person in the population could look at your iPhone X and unlock it using Face ID is approximately 1 in 1,000,000 (versus 1 in 50,000 for Touch ID).
” That’s a tall security claim to make, and we’re going to see this one tested in the coming days. Face ID allows only five unsuccessful match attempts, after which a user will have to enter the passcode to unlock the device. Apple says Face ID is secure against physical and digital spoofing.
So even if someone manages to create a 3D mask of your face, the iPhone X can’t be unlocked using this. The phone can’t be unlocked with a simple 2D picture of the user either. Finally, the Facial Data is stored in the “Secure Enclave” of Apple iPhone X’s A11 Bionic chip, and it is stored as a “mathematical representation.” So when the feature is used, the two representations are compared for a match.
According to Apple’s paper, they are not really storing the face images used during unlock operations, which are discarded once the mathematical representation has been created for comparison with the saved data. Apple’s says the Security Enclave is encrypted and only one face data can be stored on the iPhone X at a time.
How does Face ID match a face with the stored data, Apple says it is relying on neural networks which have been designed, trained just for this purpose. “We developed the facial matching neural networks using over a billion images, including IR and depth images collected in studies conducted with the participants’ informed consent,” reads the paper. Apple also says they don’t store Face ID data on their servers and that it doesn’t leave the device in question. This means all the computing around Face ID is done on the device itself.
Apple’s paper says, the “data doesn’t leave your device, and is never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else. This process requires a “digitally signed authorization from Apple” itself so this won’t be applicable to most users unless they sign up for this. Also users have the option of reviewing the data being shared with Apple.
0 Comments