Translated from Der Spiegel: Hamburg Data-Protection Specialist Johannes Caspar warns against using iPhone 5S's new Fingerprint ID function.
'The biometric features of your body, like your fingerprints, cannot be
erased or deleted. They stay with you until the end of your life and
stay constant — they cannot be changed. One should thus avoid using
biometric ID technologies for non-vital or casual everyday uses like
turning on a smartphone. This is especially true if a biometric ID, like
your fingerprint, is stored in a data file on the electronic device you
are using.' Caspar finds Apple's argument that 'your fingerprint is
only stored on the iPhone, never transmitted over the network' weak and
misleading. 'The average iPhone user is not capable of checking, on a
technical level, what happens to his or her fingerprint once it is on
the iPhone. He or she cannot tell with any certainty or ease what kind
of private data applications downloaded onto the iPhone can or cannot
access. The recent disclosure of spying programs like Prism makes it
riskier than ever before to share important personal data with
electronic devices.' Caspar adds: 'As a matter of principle, one should
never hand over any biometric data when it isn't strictly needed.
Handing over a non-changeable biometric feature like a fingerprint for
no better reason than that it provides 'some convenience' in everyday
use, is ill advised and foolish. One must always be extremely cautious
where and for what reasons one hands over biometric features.
