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    Threat model, threat model, threat model!

    Attacks against the fingerprint of the defense minister of Germany make sense. But @owen doesn’t need to worry about hackers taking pictures of his thumbs with telephoto lenses because the potential attackers aren’t sophisticated enough to pull that attack off.

    @owen also doesn’t need to worry about the NSA figuring out how to break into the secure enclave of his iPhone, or finding a vulnerability letting them reverse the hash, because frankly the NSA has far better ways to attack me in bulk and I’m not at all interesting enough for targeted operations.

    What @owen needs is:

    • his nosy friends to stay out of his Safari password section so they can’t see how much money is in his bank or read his email.
    • a pickpocket who steals his phone to not be able to get in and do anything, including wiping it for resale.

    The convenience of a fingerprint then lets me use a long alphanumeric password to unlock my phone whenever it restarts (seldom) or whenever my three year old’s playing with it locks me out (frequently).