Hi, and welcome back to Legal Geek. This week, we cover a couple of interesting stories from the field of privacy law. First, a story about the development of master fake fingerprints, and second, a guide to the holiday gift season, from a tech nerd and privacy/information security context.
Researchers at New York University and Michigan State University have been working on fingerprints for unlocking biometric sensors such as the TouchID sensor on newer iPhones. These so-called master fingerprints are not based on the conventional method of copying a genuine user's actual fingerprint, but instead, these are based on analysis with artificial intelligence of common fingerprint patterns. The AI uses a discriminator to identify common features and combine them into a realistic fingerprint.
To this end, the fake master fingerprints have been tested on a number of devices like iPhones, and these fingerprints developed by the AI unlocked about a quarter of the devices. That's a far cry from the odds of a fingerprint match publicized by Apple, which is 1 in 50,000.
Why is this so different in reality? The sensors used on current phones and laptops typically are small, which means only a portion of a full fingerprint is ever recorded. That creates fewer data points to make a successful match, and a much higher likelihood of fake matches of the fewer data points. It's eye-opening research for those who rely on biometric identifiers as the security of the future, as once again, smart computers and college researchers prove how easy such security measures can still be to overcome. Kudos to NYU and Sparty for some very interesting research.
Turning to our holiday-themed story, Mozilla has investigated 70 top holiday gift items for 2018 to see how they stack up on minimum security standards. Products are rated on a scale of not very creepy to super creepy, with feedback on everything from readability of the privacy policy associated with the product to the use of cameras, microphones, and location tracking. For those who don't think about the ever-increasing amount of smart devices and the data they collect, this is a fun educational experience into all of these aspects consumers should care about.
In an era where even grandparents are learning about data privacy from Facebook and similar social networks, it would not be surprising to see more consumers trend towards products that treat data security better. So if you're curious how all the roombas, security cameras, and BB-8 toys around you are planning to take over the world in the future robot revolution, check out this project by searching Mozilla Privacy Not Included on any search browser.
The Bottom Line is, nothing says holiday season like consumer privacy and data security. While manufacturers like Apple will try and sell products based on things like biometric identifier scanners, nonprofits like Mozilla and researchers will continue to do the heavy lifting to let consumers know which companies are developing more secure products. Nobody wants a data breach to ruin this season, after all. Here's to being smart consumers in holiday season 2018 and beyond.
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