Inside iOS 11: New security feature allows users to temporarily disable Touch ID, quickly ...
Apple's iOS 11 includes a new security feature, with a few button presses making it impossible to unlock your phone with Touch ID, as well as giving a quick option to dial 911. Here's how to use it.
Editor's note: this article was first run in June during the iOS 11 beta process. It has been updated to reflect the official release of the operating system.
The new iOS 11 feature might allow iPhone owners who find themselves in a dangerous situation to ensure their phone cannot be forcefully unlocked with a fingerprint. It will also make it easier to contact emergency services if the person is in danger or threatened.
To access it, in iOS 11, a user must just press the lock/power button five times quickly. Pressing five times does not automatically dial 911, but it presents the user with an option to do so.
The new security feature also temporarily disables Touch ID, requiring users to enter a passcode to unlock their device. This would prevent a would-be thief or attacker from forcing a user's fingerprint onto the iPhone's home button to unlock it.
Previously, a user would need to completely restart their phone, or to purposefully attempt to unlock multiple times with an unrecognized finger, to have a password be required on demand.
For more on the new features included with iOS 11, see AppleInsider's ongoing Inside iOS 11 series.
Editor's note: this article was first run in June during the iOS 11 beta process. It has been updated to reflect the official release of the operating system.
The new iOS 11 feature might allow iPhone owners who find themselves in a dangerous situation to ensure their phone cannot be forcefully unlocked with a fingerprint. It will also make it easier to contact emergency services if the person is in danger or threatened.
To access it, in iOS 11, a user must just press the lock/power button five times quickly. Pressing five times does not automatically dial 911, but it presents the user with an option to do so.
The new security feature also temporarily disables Touch ID, requiring users to enter a passcode to unlock their device. This would prevent a would-be thief or attacker from forcing a user's fingerprint onto the iPhone's home button to unlock it.
Previously, a user would need to completely restart their phone, or to purposefully attempt to unlock multiple times with an unrecognized finger, to have a password be required on demand.
For more on the new features included with iOS 11, see AppleInsider's ongoing Inside iOS 11 series.
Comments
Edit: Stand down, I have auto-call enabled.
U.S. Courts have decided that, while a password is protected by the Fourth Amendment prohibition against the government forcing one to incriminate oneself, fingerprints are not. The police can forcibly take your fingerprints in other circumstances, such as being arrested, and the courts have extended that to the authority to unlock one's phone. Note that this does not mean that police have the authority to search one's phone at any time, only that the same circumstances that permit taking fingerprints also allow using a fingerprint to unlock a phone. Such a search still requires a warrant or immediate probably cause.
This is one of the reasons TouchID does not unlock my phone.
I can see cases where you might often want to surreptitiously lock your phone, while still having the option of making the emergency services call. And if you want to make the emergency services call, you probably don't want to be fiddling with a slider on the iPhone's screen.
Nor even, perhaps, would you have the time to do so.
It seems incredible to me that a passcode is protected but physical biometric locks (fingerprint or facial recognition) are not protected. Anything to do with an individuals identity should be protected!
You probably can't operate a stopwatch fast enough to measure the time 'cost' when activating a extra two clicks or the time 'saved' by not having click two more times.
Familiarize yourself with the procedure and it's a piece o' cake.
Personally, I might try "hey siri, call 911." Or I'd try to pick up the phone and use it normally. I suspect "make an iPhone useful when the person can't see or use the screen--and can't use Siri" is pretty low on the Apple priority list.
I suppose I agree, except that there wasn't really a great reason to remove Touch ID. Fortunately, we're only talking one high-end (and rather silly, IMO) phone model at this point. My fear is that in a few years, Touch ID will be completely gone across the line. But, in light of what I said above, maybe it's all a moot point anymore.