face id Apple responds to Senator Franken’s (D-MN) Face ID privacy concerns

[captain_to_fire]

Source: Apple's Support Page and Whitepaper (FaceID_Security_Guide.pdf) via Tech Crunch

 

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Apple has now responded to a letter from U.S. Senator Al Franken last month in which he asked the company to provide more information about the incoming Face ID authentication technology which is baked into its top-of-the-range iPhone X, due to go on sale early next 

 

Last month Franken flagged what he dubbed “substantial questions” about how “Face ID will impact iPhone users’ privacy and security, and whether the technology will perform equally well on different groups of people”, asking Apple for “clarity to the millions of Americans who use your products” and how it had weighed privacy and security issues pertaining to the tech itself; and for additional steps taken to protect users.

 

It's good that Apple released a whitepaper to clarify the issue and I encourage everyone to read their support page as well as their detailed whitepaper as to how they keep Face ID secure and how they respond to Al Franken's questions so here are some key points from Appe:

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Face ID security

 

Once it confirms the presence of an attentive face, the TrueDepth camera projects and reads over 30,000 infrared dots to form a depth map of the face, along with a 2D infrared image. This data is used to create a sequence of 2D images and depth maps, which are digitally signed and sent to the Secure Enclave. To counter both digital and physical spoofs, the TrueDepth camera randomizes the sequence of 2D images and depth map captures, and projects a device-specific random pattern. A portion of the A11 Bionic chip’s neural engine—protected within the Secure Enclave—transforms this data into a mathematical representation and compares that representation to the enrolled facial data. This enrolled facial data is itself a mathematical representation of your face captured across a variety of poses.

Basically very similar as to how Touch ID is securing fingerprint data. Touch  ID is a capacitive CMOS sensor that takes a high DPI image of the fingerprint and converts it into math representation and discards the image after. The math representation is stored locally in the Secure Enclave of the A7 chip and above.

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As an additional protection, Face ID allows only five unsuccessful match attempts before a passcode is required. The statistical probability is different for twins and siblings that look like you and among children under the age of 13, because their distinct facial features may not have fully developed. If you're concerned about this, we recommend using a passcode to authenticate.

 

Face ID matches against depth information, which isn’t found in print or 2D digital photographs. It's designed to protect against spoofing by masks or other techniques through the use of sophisticated anti-spoofing neural networks. Face ID is even attention-aware. It recognizes if your eyes are open and looking towards the device. This makes it more difficult for someone to unlock your iPhone without your knowledge (such as when you are sleeping).

Sucks for people with identical twins then but Apple didn't say that an identical twin can unlock it, it's just a lower probability. Again, this one should be tested among identical twins as I remember, even identical twins can't fool Windows Hello. As twins grow, they actually become more and more distinct.

But then if you're 13 and below, your parents should just get you the regular iPhone 8 or better yet, no phone at all and focus at school. 

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We worked with participants from around the world to include a representative group of people accounting for gender, age, ethnicity, and other factors. We augmented the studies as needed to provide a high degree of accuracy for a diverse range of users. Face ID is designed to work with hats, scarves, glasses, contact lenses, and many sunglasses. Furthermore, it's designed to work indoors, outdoors, and even in total darkness. An additional neural network that’s trained to spot and resist spoofing defends against attempts to unlock your phone with photos or masks.

 

The following Face ID data is saved, encrypted only for use by the Secure Enclave, during normal operation:

 

• The infrared images of your face captured during enrollment.

• The mathematical representations of your face calculated during enrollment. 

• The mathematical representations of your face calculated during some unlock attempts if Face ID deems them useful to augment future matching.

 

The neural networks may be updated over time. To avoid a user having to reenroll to Face ID when these neural network changes are made, iPhone X will be able to automatically run stored enrollment images through the updated neural network. In addition to being encrypted and protected by the Secure Enclave, these enrollment images are cropped to your face, minimizing the amount of background information. Face images captured during normal unlock operations aren’t saved, but are instead immediately discarded once the mathematical representation is calculated for comparison to the enrolled Face ID data.

I wonder what does Apple mean by a mathematical representation? Is it just a random string of numbers and letters that are salted and hashed? They won't tell. I think they probably shouldn't. And finally, here's Apple's response to Al Franken if Face ID data is uploaded to Apple servers or not.

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Face ID Diagnostics 

 

Face ID data doesn’t leave your device, and is never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else. Only in the case that you wish to provide Face ID diagnostic data to AppleCare for support will this information be transferred from your device. Enabling Face ID Diagnostics requires a digitally signed authorization from Apple that’s similar to the one used in the software update personalization process. After authorization, you'll be able to activate Face ID Diagnostics and begin the setup process from within the Settings app of your iPhone X.

 

As part of setting up Face ID Diagnostics, your existing Face ID enrollment will be deleted and you'll be asked to re-enroll in Face ID. Your iPhone X will begin recording Face ID images captured during authentication attempts for the next 7 days; iPhone X will automatically stop saving images thereafter. Face ID Diagnostics doesn't automatically send data to Apple. You can review and approve Face ID Diagnostics data—including enrollment and unlock images (both failed and successful) that are gathered while in diagnostics mode— before it’s sent to Apple. Face ID Diagnostics will upload only the Face ID Diagnostics images you have approved; the data is encrypted before it’s uploaded, and is immediately deleted from your iPhone X after the upload completes. Images you reject are immediately deleted.

 

If you don’t conclude the Face ID Diagnostics session by reviewing images and uploading any approved images, Face ID Diagnostics will automatically end after 90 days, and all diagnostic images will be deleted from your iPhone X. You can also disable Face ID Diagnostics at any time. All local images are immediately deleted if you do so, and no Face ID data is shared with Apple in these cases.

Now this is the part that it's a little bit sketchy. Apple says that Face ID data is stored locally and encrypted so that's a plus. But then, you have the option to submit your Face ID diagnostic data as telemetry? I always commend Apple for their commitment to privacy and standing up against inserting encryption backdoors but Face ID diagnostic data? What do they mean by diagnostic data? Because I'm pretty sure my iPhone's Touch ID doesn't have diagnostic data. I hope Apple clarifies this and maybe a non-trollish forum member could clarify it. The good is that you have the option to disable Face ID telemetry and I think anyone with an iPhone X should unless Apple can do this in a very secure and private manner. I mean, macOS's telemetry is actually way less creepy than Windows 10 because they would just take diagnostic data and personal information like email addresses, usernames and passwords are filtered out before it's being sent. In fact, you can view the actual telemetry data on an iPhone and iPad which is very transparent unlike other operating systems and you can always opt out instead of asinine options of full telemetry or telemetry lite but no telemetry off.

Edited October 19, 2017 by hey_yo_

[iRileyx]

Why does he only make this a "concern" when it's Apple that are using the technology? Samsung and OnePlus, and I'm sure many others that I can't think of, have been using it for quite a while. I don't remember anyone making this big a deal about it with them.

[openthatchest]

W H Y  Y O U  D O N ' T  B U Y  A P P L E

[captain_to_fire]

18 minutes ago, RKRiley said:

Why does he only make this a "concern" when it's Apple that are using the technology? Samsung and OnePlus have been using it for quite a while, I don't remember anyone making this big a deal about it with them.

That's the part I don't understand with Al Franken. No questions for Android OEMs who does similar biometric authentication but long questions for Apple. Maybe because the iPhone is the preffered smartphone of US politicians but what do I know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, openthatchest said:

W H Y  Y O U  D O N ' T  B U Y  A P P L E

More like why you don't buy anything that has a camera on it, if one wants to go down that route.

[handymanshandle]

As a Minnesotan, I detest both our senators.

[openthatchest]

Just now, Dan Castellaneta said:

More like why you don't buy anything that has a camera on it, if one wants to go down that route.

eh. apple is a company that I just can't trust with my information. that's why I use a Doppelganger apple ID (no, I'm not telling you what it is.)

[handymanshandle]

Just now, openthatchest said:

eh. apple is a company that I just can't trust with my information. that's why I use a Doppelganger apple ID (no, I'm not telling you what it is.)

What about Google?

[ZestyJalapeno]

1 minute ago, openthatchest said:

W H Y  Y O U  D O N ' T  B U Y  A P P L E

Yes, because only Apple collects personal data for "telemetry" purposes. 

 

Did you even read the post? Face ID data is stored locally and doesn't leave the device unless you consent to it. There are many reasons to not buy the iphone X but being wary of data collections isn't it.

[openthatchest]

Just now, Dogeystyle said:

Yes, because only Apple collects personal data for "telemetry" purposes. 

 

Did you even read the post? Face ID data is stored locally and doesn't leave the device unless you consent to it. There are many reasons to not buy the iphone X but being wary of data collections isn't it.

yes, but still. I don't like it. I prefer samsung phones anyway.

[PCGuy_5960]

1 minute ago, openthatchest said:

eh. apple is a company that I just can't trust with my information. that's why I use a Doppelganger apple ID (no, I'm not telling you what it is.)

Do you trust Google? I'm pretty sure that they collect way more information than Apple

[openthatchest]

Just now, PCGuy_5960 said:

Do you trust Google? I'm pretty sure that they collect way more information than Apple

NOPE. I use the depressed child that is bing!

[openthatchest]

Just now, PCGuy_5960 said:

Do you trust Google? I'm pretty sure that they collect way more information than Apple

I also use a false Identity there too.

[handymanshandle]

6 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

More like why you don't buy anything that has a camera on it, if one wants to go down that route.

Why you go off the grid and live in the woods and think the government is turning frogs gay and is trying to control your mind

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, openthatchest said:

bing

Ew ?

[openthatchest]

3 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Ew ?

meh. better for me.

[Dylanc1500]

15 minutes ago, openthatchest said:

meh. better for me.

Ahh so you like the pronz! Lol just playing.

 

Apple should have just sent him the product page. all of this has been public information since press release.

[openthatchest]

1 minute ago, Dylanc1500 said:

Ahh so you like the pronz! Lol just playing.

 

Apple should have just sent him the product page. all of this has been public information since press release.

??? I don't get the reference

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, Dylanc1500 said:

Ahh so you like the pronz! Lol just playing.

 

Apple should have just sent him the product page. all of this has been public information since press release.

Al Franken did the same thing with the iPhone 5s' Touch ID in 2013 but no questions or press releases when Samsung unveiled iris scanning with the Galaxy Note 7. https://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2562

[openthatchest]

2 minutes ago, Dylanc1500 said:

Ahh so you like the pronz! Lol just playing.

 

Apple should have just sent him the product page. all of this has been public information since press release.

I ' M  A N  U N C U L T U R E D  S W I N E

[Sniperfox47]

38 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I wonder what does Apple mean by a mathematical representation? Is it just a random string of numbers and letters that are salted and hashed? They won't tell. I think they probably shouldn't.

It's a neural network they said. So they're storing matrices representing the structure of their neural network, which contain weights according to the nodes of each layer. Or in layman's terms, "they're storing some fancy mathematical representation".

[Dylanc1500]

3 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Al Franken did the same thing with the iPhone 5s' Touch ID in 2013 but no questions or press releases when Samsung unveiled iris scanning with the Galaxy Note 7. https://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2562

I honestly don't keep track of that stuff so I didn't know anything about it. I assumed there was a history, I stay out of politicking as I get enough of that with execs at work ?.

 

4 minutes ago, openthatchest said:

I ' M  A N  U N C U L T U R E D  S W I N E

Hey, don't beat yourself up. We all get a little behind at times. Lol

[captain_to_fire]

16 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

It's a neural network they said. So they're storing matrices representing the structure of their neural network, which contain weights according to the nodes of each layer. Or in layman's terms, "they're storing some fancy mathematical representation".

When Apple said "mathematical representation", I was thinking about differential and integral calculus but then it's a top secret for Apple so I don't know.

[Sniperfox47]

Just now, hey_yo_ said:

When Apple said "mathematical representation", I was thinking about differential and integral calculus but then it's a top secret for Apple so I don't know.

Nah. If it's a neural network, what they're doing with the images they take of your face is training that neural network to recognize you, and then later inferencing it to recognize you. So the "mathematical representation" of you is the trained neural network's data store.

[BuckGup]

4 hours ago, openthatchest said:

I also use a false Identity there too.

Lol if you are trying to hide your identity it’s waaaaaasy too late for that. So you are just making it harder on yourself