Apple reveals fingerprint cloud storage patent
December 30, 2015
Grazed from PlanetBiometrics. Author: Editorial Staff.
Apple has patented a method for iPhones to store fingerprint information, upload to the cloud, and then download it on another iPhone. The patent “Finger Biometric Sensor Data Synchronization VIA A Cloud Computing Device And Related Methods" was published by the USPTO on December 17, 2015, reports Slash Gear.
Filed in August, this envisioned process would allow Apple devices to collect fingerprint information, as they do today, but also upload that information to the cloud for storage. Previously, Apple has shied away from storing biometric data in the cloud – and its security policy states: “An image of the fingerprint itself is never actually retained…
Instead, Touch ID calculates a ‘mathematical representation’ of the key shapes of the fingerprint, which is than only ever kept locally on the iPhone 5s itself, not backed up to the cloud”. However, underlining that it recognises the potential security issues this could raise, the firm states throughout the patent that only data is being stored – not images…