New Apple iPhone features fingerprint ID

The iPhone 5s with its Touch ID technology escalates mobile security.

The owners of Apple’s latest smartphone (the iPhone 5s) will be using a fingerprint sensor (called Touch ID) for user identification. Unlike anoptical reader which takes a picture of the fingerprint, Apple has used a capacitance sensor to measure the conductive differences between the dermal and sub-dermal parts of your fingerprint. While this may sound like gibberish to some of us, Apple has indicated that the more advanced option has been chosen for maximum security.

Passcodes will not be eliminated in the face of the Touch ID but the use of both provides a greater degree of security. Also, passcodes will not be required as frequently with the use of the fingerprint ID. According to Apple, you will be able to authenticate purchases from your iPhone in iTunes or the App Store.

We may even dare to assume that the fingerprint feature, under today’s spotlight, could have something to do with an Apple e-wallet, which has been a predicted Apple offering in recent months. In fact, AppleInsider published an article in April reporting forecasts of an e-wallet with a “fingerprint scanning functionality in this year’s so-called iPhone 5s”. If this is true, then Apple will be entering the world of payment processing and “because of the fact that Apple already has hundreds of millions of users' credit card numbers tied to their iTunes accounts,” as the article points out, its entry into the industry would mark the emergence of tough competition for existing e-wallets. We wait to see if the rumors are true…

While fingerprint technology of this kind is not brand new, the fact that it is being brought into everyday life with the smartphone (an extension of the self for many of us) is a pretty big deal and hopefully an encouraging step towards guarding against the increased cyber-crime that plagues consumers and merchants in the e-commerce space on an ongoing basis.