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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday December 16 2017, @07:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the fingerprints-left-behind dept.

Synaptics has created a 0.7 mm thick fingerprint sensor that can scan your finger from underneath a smartphone display, and the first company to use it will be the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo:

A brand you've never heard of will release the first phone with an in-screen fingerprint sensor

A few days ago, Synaptics announced that it's ready to mass-produce a fingerprint sensor that can be placed under the display of a smartphone, teasing that a top five smartphone maker is going to use the technology later this year. Synaptics' press release made it look like Samsung may be the first company to make use of its technology. But it looks like that won't be the case, as a new report reveals the company that will make this hotly anticipated handset... and if you're in the United States, you've probably never even heard of it.

[...] Forbes claims to have learned that Vivo will make the first smartphone to use Synaptics' Clear ID sensor.

Vivo, a company whose name might not be familiar to you, is actually a top-five smartphone maker thanks to its large presence in Chine[sic]. Forbes contributor Patrick Moorhead got to test the Clear ID sensor:

The Clear ID experience was fast and simple- I pressed the right side button to wake, a fingerprint image illuminated at the bottom of the phone, I touched it, and it let me in. I am expecting Vivo to modify the experience, so I just have to "hold to wake" so I do not even have to use the button.

Related: Search Warrant for Your Fingerprint
Tech Savvy Kids Defeat Biometric Lockouts, Use Parents' Fingerprints to Unlock Phones
Credit Card With a Fingerprint Sensor Revealed by Mastercard


Original Submission

Related Stories

Search Warrant for Your Fingerprint 41 comments

FBI is quietly waging a different encryption battle in a Los Angeles courtroom. The authorities obtained a search warrant compelling the girlfriend of an alleged Armenian gang member to press her finger against an iPhone that had been seized from a Glendale home. The phone uses Apple's fingerprint identification system for unlocking. It's a rare case were prosecutors have demanded a person provide a fingerprint to unlock a computer, but experts expect such cases to become more common.

In a Circuit Court decision in Virginia 2014, the judge ruled that a criminal defendant cannot use Fifth Amendment protections to safeguard a phone that is locked using his or her fingerprint. According to Judge Steven C. Fucci, a criminal defendant can't be compelled to hand over a passcode to police officers for the purpose of unlocking a cellular device, law enforcement officials can compel a defendant to give up a fingerprint. The Fifth Amendment states that "no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," which protects memorized information like passwords and passcodes, but it doesn't protect fingerprints in the eyes of the law. Frucci said that "giving police a fingerprint is akin to providing a DNA or handwriting sample or an actual key, which the law permits. A passcode, though, requires the defendant to divulge knowledge, which the law protects against.

In other words fingerprints are bad security. On the other hand... maybe some fingers like 9 out of 10, instead can trigger a silent self-destruct?


Original Submission

Tech Savvy Kids Defeat Biometric Lockouts, Use Parents' Fingerprints to Unlock Phones 11 comments

These two stories show how tech savvy even very young kids can be. Gaining access to a phone is easy if you have the owner's hand nearby.

Six year old kid circumvents iPhone biometrics to order USD250 of Pokemon toys

"After Ashlynd's parents received 13 order confirmations for Pokemon items, they initially thought they'd been hacked," the Wall Street Journal reports. They even considered that Ashlynd had purchased the items by mistake, but they later realized it was no accident.

"No, Mommy, I was shopping," Ashlynd told her mom. "But don't worry—everything that I ordered is coming straight to the house."

4 YO Boy Saves His Mom's Life By Unlocking Her iPhone

Quick thinking in the face of emergency isn't something you expect 4-year-olds to have but Roman's story is different because what he did to save is mother's life is incredible. On March 7, Roman was at home with his twin brother and younger brother when their mom collapsed. When she didn't revive, Roman used her thumb's fingerprint to unlock her iPhone and used the 'Siri' app to dial the UK's emergency number 999.

After connecting with the emergency dispatcher, Roman told her that his mom was 'dead'. When the dispatcher asked him what that meant, Roman replied, "It means she's closing her eyes and she's not breathing."


Original Submission

Credit Card With a Fingerprint Sensor Revealed by Mastercard 15 comments

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

A payment card featuring a fingerprint sensor has been unveiled by credit card provider Mastercard. The rollout follows two successful trials in South Africa.

The technology works in the same way as it does with mobile phone payments: users must have their finger over the sensor when making a purchase. Security experts have said that while using fingerprints is not foolproof, it is a "sensible" use of biometric technology.

The cards are thought to be the first to include both the digital template of the user's fingerprint and the sensor required to read their fingerprints at the point of sale. Previous biometric payment cards only worked when used in conjunction with a separate fingerprint scanner. That limited their usefulness, as only stores with the correct equipment could accept them.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39643453


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:12PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:12PM (#610775)

    Lets hope they can get people to understand that bio id is for the username not the password. We can hope things will change.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:42PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:42PM (#610784)

      Easy enough, just set the device to not remember your username.

      If someone hacks off your finger to use it to break into your phone, joke's on them...because they don't have the username.
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:46PM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:46PM (#610786) Journal

        But you'll have 9 more fingers and other parts to hack off until you give them everything.

        --
        [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Sunday December 17 2017, @08:10AM

          by bob_super (1357) on Sunday December 17 2017, @08:10AM (#610905)

          The advantage is the $5 wrench is its ability to secure the phone after the information is retrieved.
          Cutting pieces is such a messy process.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:46PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @08:46PM (#610787)

      They'll have to if they want to have access to the free internet we'll need to begin building now that net neutrality is gone. The corporations will, of course, use their standard propaganda against “darknets” and subversive things like open hardware.

      I'd rather only authenticate with my gnupg key.

      • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday December 16 2017, @10:06PM (1 child)

        by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday December 16 2017, @10:06PM (#610799) Journal

        Do you keep that on a usb stick or do you remember all the keys?

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @10:16PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16 2017, @10:16PM (#610800)

          USB stick is the plan. Then my home directory can go there too on loopback crypto mount upon login. I haven't started looking at PAM module development yet, though. Should be easily multi-user capable.

          Of course, given that my system is not open hardware, I suppose I really have no guarantee that the thing won't read my private key and ship it off to the lizard people.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 17 2017, @01:21AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 17 2017, @01:21AM (#610821)

      I was actually looking forward to this when I finally gave up my BlackBerry Passport for the KEYone, which has an integrated fingerprint sensor in the spacebar. I had previously gotten rid of a Priv largely because Android only allows 17 character passwords and none of my regular-use passwords were that short. However it seems that fingerprint+password is not a supported unlock method in Android, much to my chagrin. I am not sure if I will go back at this point, though it seems BB10 will be supported for another 2 years. [crackberry.com]

  • (Score: 2) by Alphatool on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:09AM (2 children)

    by Alphatool (1145) on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:09AM (#610849)

    It's also worth mentioning that Vivo is part of BBK electronics, a huge Chinese phone manufacturer that also makes phones under the Oppo and OnePlus brands. BBK is currently the second biggest phone manufacturer in the world, behind Samsung but ahead of Apple. It's not at all surprising that they would be the first to bring something like this to market.

    • (Score: 1) by Crash on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:39AM (1 child)

      by Crash (1335) on Sunday December 17 2017, @04:39AM (#610861)

      Odd. I had noticed when glancing through Xiaomi's competitors on various occasions that there was little to no distinction between Oppo and Vivo phones. So if they are effectively the same company, there doesn't seem to be any point at all beyond dilution of the previous major players marketshare.

      • (Score: 2) by Alphatool on Sunday December 17 2017, @08:33AM

        by Alphatool (1145) on Sunday December 17 2017, @08:33AM (#610909)

        The way that Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus work together is definitely odd. Sometimes it looks like Vivo is aimed at the lower end of the market, Oppo is the mainstream line and OnePlus is aimed at nerds so they can experiment and maybe take some risks. This idea falls down when a lot of their experimenting happens with Vivo branded phones, like the world's thinnest phone and now this. It's all a bit of a mess but it seems to be working for them.

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