Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Selling Your Identity



Just recently Apple announced that it were releasing its latest iPhone, which would be the 5s, and the unique and new a feature allow you to unlock your phone with your fingerprint. By apple having access to your fingerprint they basically have your identity and location every time you unlock your phone. Some of the main issues to focus on will be if apple would be forced by law enforcement to surrender its information to catch criminals or if it servers that hold all of these fingerprint gets hacked seeing as though apple hold everything through their storage system called the cloud.

Apple announced that it sold over 9 million iPhone 5S and 5Cs during the opening weekend of sales and the number of IPhone users growing more than any other smart phone users.

 “Touch ID” the new feature may seem to be the most convenient and secure but for how long? Seeing as though you would need your fingerprint to open the phone you would be the only person that could open it but how secure is your information and the contents of your phone?

In certain situations will law enforcement have the right to access your location through Apples Touch ID? Consumers must understand that if they are using this feature there is no such thing as privacy or not being found because your identity and location is being track through the one thing that you use everyday, you iPhone.


“It is plain stupid to use something that you can’t change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token”, said Frank Rieger, spokesperson of the Computer Chaos Club. “The public should no longer be fooled by the biometrics industry with false security claims.” says, M. Rogowsky form Changingminds.org.


"Fingerprints have been studied for uniqueness, identification and criminal importance for more than one hundred years. Through technology and expertly trained fingerprint examiners, the fingerprint can be the single most important piece of evidence for solving a crime "says, a reporter from Portland State University

It is rare that companies as big as Apple get hacked but it is possible. Sony the maker of the PlayStation game consoles experience a security breach in 2011 that compromised the data of 77 million accounts on the online service.

“Sony said account information, including names, birth dates, email addresses and log-in information, was compromised for players using its PlayStation Network” says, Y.  Kageyama from Changingminds.org.

iPhone users should be aware that the one thing that they carry everywhere they go is holding some of their most valuable information and they should also know what they are signing up for when they purchase the new iPhone. Consumers are selling their identities and their locations at all times with the purchase of and iPhone 5S.


Rogowsky, M. (n.d.). Self-Monitoring Behavior. Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/self-monitoring.htm
Kageyama, Y. (2011, May 2). Self-Monitoring Behavior. Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/self-monitoring.htm

How fingerprinting improves criminal investigations | Portland State University Online CCJ. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://online.ccj.pdx.edu/ccj-careers-resources/criminal-justice-resources/news/how-fingerprinting-improves-criminal-investigations-800697618/


1 comment:

  1. I agree that it is violating a person's right to their identity by providing their fingerprint through a public service provider. The system could be hacked or anything and your fingerprint can identify you in multiple ways. They should have an option if one is not provided because then they could choose whether to give out such information. I really just feel that people should research things more so they will know what they are purchasing.

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