Apple had claimed that its Face ID on iPhone X is foolproof. However, various recent tests have shown that one can easily fool Face ID on iPhone X with the face of an identical twin or even using a specialized mask. In a most recent video, a mom shows how her 10-years-old son was able to access her Face ID locked iPhone X without her permission.
The most puzzling thing about this video is that there is not a striking resemblance between the son and the mother. It is worrisome to see Apple’s latest security feature failing even when there’s not much resemblance between parent and the kid.
To be fair to Apple, the company does claim that an identical twin or sibling and children below the age of 13 can affect the accuracy of Face ID. With every passing day, Apple is collecting more and more data about Face ID used by millions of iPhone X owners around the globe. With the help of more data, the company will have a better chance at improving its Face ID security in the future.
Another thing to consider here is that there’s a chance that the kid might have unsuccessfully tried to unlock the iPhone X the first few times and then proceeded to unlock the device with a passcode. And during the whole process, the Face ID learned his facial features.
Upon a request from Wired, Sherwani – the kid’s mother, re-registered her Face with Face ID. She then gave her iPhone X to her son Ammar, who tried to unlock the device with his face but failed this time. After this Sherwani tried to replicate the scenario in which she had first set up her iPhone X and Face ID – nighttime conditions and indoor. After this, Ammar was able to unlock his mom’s iPhone X on the third try. After multiple such unlocking attempts, he was able to unlock the smartphone without any issue. This might have happened due to the fact that the artificial intelligence behind the Face ID is set to learn the facial features of the person in front of the camera when that person unlocks the device using a passcode after failed retries.
Such is the perfect scenario that adds up to the feeling that Touch ID was more secure than the Face ID. Apple will highly likely be working on fixing such rough edges of Face ID through software and hardware improvements in the future models.
Via [Wired]