The Californian company explains what data is collected by the facial recognition system and the conditions that prevent Face ID from working
Face ID, the facial recognition and main feature of the iPhone X, has immediately aroused interest and also fueled doubts and perplexities: in fact, many have asked questions especially about the level of privacy and security guaranteed by the system. Questions that Apple has answered in a document: “Face ID Security”.
With the Face ID, as is now known, the Californian company has introduced an alternative technology to the Home button. Biometric recognition allows users to unlock the device using their face. As soon as it was presented, however, something went wrong: Face ID didn’t seem so foolproof. Probably just a hiccup, but it was enough to create more than one concern about its operation, in particular the effectiveness of the system on the protection of unauthorized access to the device. And that’s not all. Some were also hesitant about the use of information collected by biometric technology.
Apple’s answers
Apple has thus answered all these questions, providing details about Face ID. First of all, on the privacy front, the California-based company has specified that the data captured by the facial recognition system remains on the iPhone X and is not stored either on iCloud or on other servers.
The company also clarifies what is the nature of the information recorded by Face ID: it is infrared images obtained by the system at the time of registration and mathematical representations of the user’s face, always obtained during registration or acquired later with the sole purpose of improving facial recognition. In addition, Face ID only crops the face, avoiding collecting background data.
Apple also explains what conditions Face ID fails to work under. The system will not unlock the iPhone if the device has just been turned on or restarted: in these cases you will need to use the password first. Face ID won’t work if the phone hasn’t been unlocked for at least 48 hours or if six and a half days have passed since the device was last locked with a password. As well as it is necessary to use the password if Face ID has not been used in 4 hours.
Face ID cannot be used after 5 unsuccessful attempts to recognize the user’s face. It also does not work if the phone has received a remote lock request or if it is shutting down. Finally, the recognition does not respond when the SOS emergency command is activated.