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posted by martyb on Thursday June 20 2019, @04:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the they-will-never-guess-my-age-because-I-leave-my-phone-unlocked! dept.

How you lock your smartphone can reveal your age: UBC study:

Older smartphone users tend to rely more on their phones' auto lock feature compared to younger users, a new UBC study has found. They also prefer using PINs over fingerprints to unlock their phones.

Researchers also found that older users are more likely to unlock their phones when they're stationary, such as when working at a desk or sitting at home.

The study is the first to explore the link between age and smartphone use, says Konstantin Beznosov, an electrical and computer engineering professor at UBC who supervised the research.

"As researchers working to protect smartphones from unauthorized access, we need to first understand how users use their devices," said Beznosov. "By tracking actual users during their daily interactions with their device, we now have real-world insights that can be used to inform future smartphone designs."

The full study is available through the ACM Digital Library.


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 20 2019, @07:54PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 20 2019, @07:54PM (#858173) Journal

    so many reasons not to use fingerprint readers from a security standpoint, in addition to their unreliability.

    I use fingerprint, not for security, but for convenience.

    It is convenient because it rarely fails. My current and previous Google phone has extremely reliable fingerprint censor. And on the back of the phone. After withdrawing the device from my pocket, I can touch the back fingerprint sensor while moving the phone to where I can use it. It's the quickest, easiest and most reliable way. Much more convenient than either a PIN or Pattern. But I also do use a pattern and not a PIN.

    I don't have any illusions about it being secure.

    --
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  • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday June 21 2019, @02:05AM (1 child)

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Friday June 21 2019, @02:05AM (#858374) Journal

    If you don't have illusions about it being secure, why use it at all?

    I'm guessing because it provides a minor impediment as a security feature, so it does provide some security, kinda like using a weak password rather than no password at all. Which is of course a preference. It's your device, so leave it secure or not as you wish. (For years, I didn't have any lock on my phone, since I almost always used it as a phone. It had no access to anything other than phone numbers of contacts... No apps with saved passwords, no banking, no nothing. Everything that could possibly be saving or tracking stuff like that was turned off... And I still do that for most apps on my phone. So I understand not needing major security on a device if you're not using it for anything that demands it.)

    What I wonder about is the term "reliability." What does it mean that your fingerprint reader is "reliable" here? Does it mean that it just reliably unlocks your phone? Given that I've read about "master fingerprints" that apparently can unlock some phones something like 20% of the time anyway, I wonder if this reader is just even more open to random matching... Which means "reliability" in this instance may just be even lesser security.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 21 2019, @03:27PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 21 2019, @03:27PM (#858573) Journal

      As you say, it is a minor security feature. But not real security.

      The reason: because I want the phone to actually lock in a way that it won't be getting button presses and taking actions when it is in my pocket.

      I want to either have to fingerprint it, or swipe an unlock pattern.

      Convenience, not security is the reason I don't use a PIN.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.