# Advantages of fingerprint sign in on cell phone? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 13, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-fingerprint-sign-in-on-cell-phone/757258 "2016-06-13T16:08:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Krouget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b38774/32.png) [@Krouget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krouget)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-fingerprint-sign-in-on-cell-phone/757258/61 "2016-06-17T15:54:13Z")
Both my Nexus 6P and iPad have scanners and they work very well. I can’t think of any notable/immediate disadvantages, but if I did, I could just as well disable the feature. Actually, that’s not true. One “disadvantage” is that some stores are dragging their feet with tap and pay terminals. :mad:You can swipe a card anywhere, but it’s laughably vulnerable. Everything else is an advantage. I swear. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-fingerprint-sign-in-on-cell-phone/757258/62 "2016-06-17T16:17:01Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > It’s useful enough to prevent your observant kids from memorizing your PIN. This is so true our youngest is autistic and doesn’t quite get that he is not allowed to order stuff on amazon and is quite observant with a photographic memory. and agree with what Beowulf said, apple pay, bank access on phone, ease of unlock , apple store family sharing and approval and Amazon approval . It doesn’t always work with dirty or wet hands and some phone cases, and for some people thats a deal breaker, but each to their own. . ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-fingerprint-sign-in-on-cell-phone/757258/63 "2016-06-17T17:05:51Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Imagine coming in on Monday to find that a ton of stuff was stolen from your employer and you were the only one to access the building during the time. “I’m sorry, Sven, but the biometric scanner shows that it is you who stole all of the widgets. We are going to have to prosecute.” “Uh, did you check the security camera?” “Oh, duh! Any facility that is investing in biometric identification is probably interested enough in security to at least install a camera!” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-fingerprint-sign-in-on-cell-phone/757258/64 "2016-06-17T21:06:31Z")
When a fingerprint scanner scans your finger it looks for something like 24 “minutia” or small imperfection points on your fingerprint and then creates a one way hash of the description of those points. However even if you could decode that hash there is no reason to believe that another scanner would choose those same points so the likelihood of another device with your thumb print could be hacked with only the same data points. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-fingerprint-sign-in-on-cell-phone/757258/65 "2016-06-17T22:17:48Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > That doesn’t solve the problem, though, it just delays it. You are going to run out of fingers at some point, and then what? > > My guess is that the issue of not being able to change your biometrics will be solved by ever-higher resolution scanners. Sure, you can’t get a new retina or fingerprint to scan, but if the next generation of scanners can pick up things that the previous generation didn’t, then it should be able to stay ahead of the copies for a while. So, biometrics will be subject to cat and mouse tactics and arms races just like pretty much every other security technology. > > I also expect that the severed finger/eyeball risk will remain slim. When I go to doctor, they put a little thing on my finger that measures my blood oxygen content with light transmission. Surely it’s not _that hard_ to make a scanner that can tell if the finger/eyeball is attached to a live body. There is a scanner they use in north Carolina at the medical facilities which scans your palm for the patterns of the blood vessels. Presumably if you cut off the person’s hand the blood vessels may move around. Supposed to be better than fingerprints and I never had to have them scan more than once. Could even work on phones with pixel sense, where each pixel has a tiny camera. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-fingerprint-sign-in-on-cell-phone/757258/66 "2016-06-18T02:12:29Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > Presumably if you cut off the person’s hand the blood vessels may move around. An interesting experiment. I have a little list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advantages-of-fingerprint-sign-in-on-cell-phone/757258.md?page=3)