Almost every 2016 flagship mobile phone, whether Android or iOS-based, is set to come with an integrated fingerprint reader. The convenience benefits of fingerprint readers are clear to users, but is the underlying technology really ready for widespread adoption? This article explores some of the background of the challenge of secure user authentication on mobile devices, as well as recent weaknesses identified in the handling of fingerprints on many consumer devices. It also considers legislatory and social implications of the widespread adoption of fingerprint authentication. Finally, it attempts to look forward to some resulting problems we may encounter in the future.
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