Phone biometrics like Touch ID aren't secure enough, warns intelligence expert

We might think little of using our fingerprints to unlock our smartphones but Sir John Adye, the former boss of the UK intelligence and security agency GCHQ, has warned that there's not enough information about what happens with people's data,For many people using features such as Touch ID on the iPhone 6, it is a convenient and secure way of unlocking our phones. However, as Sir John Adye points out, we don't know what mobile phone companies are doing with that sort of information.He points out that "if you go to an ATM and put in your credit or debit card, that system is supervised by the bank in some way...But when you're using your smartphone... there's no physical supervision of the system".More control and transparencySir John Adye's comments were made in evidence to the Commons Science and Technology Committee, which is examining the use of biometric technology.Although many other phones use biometric data to secure themselves, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, Sir John singled out the iPhone 6 due to the integration of biometrics with Apple Pay and other payment services."You can now use your iPhone 6 to make payments using biometrics on the internet and you've got to tick various boxes before you do so, but how many people are actually going read through all those boxes properly and understand what they mean when it goes in?"The Commons Science and Technology Committee is not only looking at how companies could be regulated when it comes to handling our sensitive biometric data, but also how to protect citizens from a new generation of identity theft.It's a timely reminder that while we give our phones a lot of data about ourselves, we often don't know what companies do with that information. Are biometrics the future for mobile authentication?

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