Skip to main content

Anonymous claims Apple’s Touch ID and Authentec purchase gives NSA access to fingerprints

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC05RJidXDs#t=174

Interesting but totally unsubstantiated claim by Anonymous.

…claims the group make concerning Touch ID seem to focus on Authentec director, Robert E Grady, who appears to have been a prominent figure within the George Bush administration and (Anonymous claim) was connected with The Carlyle Group, which Anonymous also claim is a majority shareholder in Booz Allen Hamilton, the NSA contractor with which whistleblower Edward Snowden worked.

I’d like to think the government and NSA already have my fingerprints but they went out of business so NBD.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. if anyone wanted my fingerprints there are much easier ways to get them then thru my phone.

    • AP (@beedogvolcano) - 10 years ago

      Really? There’s an easier way than simply downloading them from your phone? Because every other way I can think of involves physically visiting somewhere and collecting them by hand.

      So… you’re wrong.

      • dob3k (@dob3k) - 10 years ago

        Yeah. Its called biometric passport and is used in US, Canada and all EU. They already have them, so take off your tin foil hat

  2. Bob Black - 10 years ago

    come on now.. next you’ll be saying the government LIES to us, Wall street is honest… etc ..

  3. rettun1 - 10 years ago

    The last line, i lol’d

  4. Lee Palisoc - 10 years ago

    I don’t think so. Sometimes, Anonymous spread shits.

  5. RP - 10 years ago

    The government has my prints also. I gave it them them when I got my driver’s licence, passport, and a few other times.

  6. hisdudenessman - 10 years ago

    I’m a lot of Anonymous’ work, but this is totally unsubstantiated and based on crazy wild eyed conspiracy conjecture at best. Like you OP, I am also surprised that people are under the impression the Feds haven’t all of their information on file including their fingerprints for several decades now. If you think this is a new trend you probably grew up in some lily white suburban paradise where nothing bad ever happens, man.

  7. Carlo (@akaCarlo) - 10 years ago

    If someone wants my finger print badly enough, they don’t need my iPhone 5s to get it.

  8. 311sie - 10 years ago

    Ah well, if Anonymous says it…

  9. brucebuck779 - 10 years ago

    Does it really make that big of difference if they do or don’t

  10. Adi Popescu - 10 years ago

    For years there are laptops using fingerprint login and no one said a thing … now that Apple use it, its NSA and FBI and sh!t

  11. Does anyone else think it’s just a little ironic that the video uses canned iMovie audio loops in a video calling Apple a megastalker?

    • NQZ (@surgesoda) - 10 years ago

      Those loops aren’t unique to iMovie though. They’re in a ton of different loop / sample packages from multiple companies.

  12. Well. I’ll buy that. The way things are going it’s looking more and more like all these tech companies are in bed with the surveillance State.

  13. Anonymous aren’t taking any studies on voice thats for sure. That was horrible to listen to. BTW anonymous, the US government has been collecting my fingerprints at your embassy and every time I fly to the USA. This has been going on long before Touch ID and you can’t opt to of this one.

  14. medianjim - 10 years ago

    Anonymous have no idea. This is a time wasting article.

  15. Michael Garnett (@_jorts) - 10 years ago

    Would anyone really be surprised? 10 years ago I may have been. Now I just assume the government sees everything I say and do. =/

    • hisdudenessman - 10 years ago

      10 years ago? Were you like 7 then? The government has been able to see and hear anything you do for a lot longer than that, man.

  16. yuniverse7 - 10 years ago

    what ever. I already gave my fingerprints when i got my passport

  17. NQZ (@surgesoda) - 10 years ago

    Noooo really!? REALLY!? Is this really a shocker to anyone? Of course the NSA is getting your fingerprints through TouchID…it’s already been proven that they lied to us multiple times about data collection on American citizens, and they lied to us legally; they were legally allowed to withhold the truth from the people. On the other hand, this isn’t going to stop me from using TouchID…but it’s still good to know that Anonymous is making things aware to people that probably wouldn’t know otherwise.

  18. PMZanetti - 10 years ago

    Of course they will have complete access to Touch ID data. There shouldn’t be any doubt about that. Why anyone would believe Apple has the power (or even desire to) to refuse that accommodation is beyond me. You may need to brush up on reality. Those mafia thugs get what they want, and that’s the end of it.

    I use Touch ID, but have no delusions about how that data is mined and databased.

  19. Joe Barnickel - 10 years ago

    I use Global Entry and Nexus when I travel, so both the US and the Canadian governments have my fingerprints plus my Iris patterns. In addition to this, when I worked in the Banking Industry I had to be bonded so again my fingerprints were used. I am not concerned.

  20. some real fuckin morons post comments on here

  21. they’ll only get my dick print because I’m only using my cock to unlock my idevices. suck that government : )

    • drtyrell969 - 10 years ago

      You know, I’ve wanted to post this comment for days. Thank you for taking the initiative!

  22. So I’m from Illinois and was born in Missouri; both states put your entire hand and foot print on your long form birth certificate. As far as I know, this is actually the norm in most places: the government already has your fingerprints, and quite a bit more

    • That’s not to say that I think what Anonymous is saying is true; it’s just to say it’s slightly overblown. I’m not concerned about the government having my fingerprint since a) it can easily obtain them by following me around or just randomly arresting me and b) the people we should most be afraid of having our fingerprints are those looking to exploit them for nefarious means. That’s not to say .Gov isn’t planning on doing that, but they have SO MUCH EASIER WAYS of getting them than hacking my phone (like going to the Secretary of State Vital Records and taking them).

  23. s92543 - 10 years ago

    Snigger, and the NSA really wants the grubby fingerprints of everyone. It doesn’t guarantee that the fingerprints registered are those of the owner, it may be multiple family members, maybe a toe print here, a testicle scan there, breast print or other body bad, heck even the cats paw.

    Whoever thought up this claim are a little OTT with their paranoia and obviously worried that it heralds a dawn of more use of biometrics again. Bunch of freaks.

  24. WaveMedia (@WaveMedia) - 10 years ago

    There’s a lot of people around here who don’t have a clue as to how Touch ID actually works. Your print isn’t really stored anywhere, it’s just a hash key. All it does is say yay or nay. Apple have gotten around this whole situation of not being able to refuse (legally) by quite simply never having the data to begin with. They never have access to anything on that chip, not that there’s really anything to access on it.

    By the way, does the NSA even collect things like prints? I thought that was the FBI. The NSA are data analysts.

  25. drtyrell969 - 10 years ago

    Of course it does. Apple was EXTREMELY careful how the framed their security statements around this technology. “It never gets uploaded to the iCloud or Apple, blah” That doesn’t preclude the NSA from stealing it right out of the chip. With India trying to get everyone human in their country into a fingerprint database, America uses Fidelity owned Apple to steal it from unsuspecting citizens.

  26. John (@jrgibson1) - 10 years ago

    Brilliant last line!

    Seriously, anyone with ONE brain cell thought about this, they would realise how much bullshit is in it. If Apple don’t have access to the information, then how could anyone else?

  27. David H. (@wizard32843) - 10 years ago

    Look at this guy’s channel. Is this even real?

Author

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Seth Weintraub

Publisher and Editorial Director of the 9to5/Electrek sites.


Seth Weintraub's favorite gear