Face ID

Face ID is a biometric authentication facial-recognition system designed and developed by Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPad Pro. The system can be used for unlocking a device, making payments, accessing sensitive data, providing detailed facial expression tracking for Animoji, as well as six degrees of freedom (6DOF) head-tracking, eye-tracking, and other features. Initially released in November 2017 with the iPhone X, it has since been updated and introduced to all iPhones outside of SE models and all iPad Pro models from 2018 onwards. Users on iOS 18 and newer can choose to lock specific apps, requiring Face ID to access them. The Face ID hardware uses a TrueDepth camera that consists of a sensor with three modules; a laser dot projector that projects a grid of small infrared dots onto a user's face, a module called the flood illuminator that shines infrared light at the face, and an infrared camera that takes an infrared picture of the user, reads the resulting pattern, and generates a 3D facial map. Face ID has sparked a number of debates about security and privacy. Apple claims that Face ID is statistically more advanced than Touch ID fingerprint scanning. It exhibits significantly fewer false positives. Multiple security features are in place to limit the risk of the system being bypassed using photos or masks, and only one proof-of-concept attempt using detailed scans has succeeded. Debate continues over the lack of legal protections offered by biometric systems as compared to passcode authentication in the United States. Hackers have been able to use combinations of Face ID data and SMS messages to enter various locked information on Apple users iPhones protected by Face ID technology. Privacy advocates have also expressed concern about third-party app developers' access to "rough maps" of user facial data, despite rigid...