During the presentation of the iPhone X and the Face ID, Apple stated how this system should be more secure than the touch ID (1: 1.000.000 versus 1: 50.000 of the fingerprint). However on the net, in addition to the classic tests with masks, a video has emerged where a 10-year-old boy managed to unlock his mother's iPhone X using Face ID.
The video (which you find above) is very particular since, in just 40 seconds, it would question all the efforts made by Apple to build a better security system than the touch ID. The similarity between the face of the mother and the child is impressive, but can this really be enough to deceive an algorithm that Apple declares to be very safe?
Let's be clear
To try to understand what may have happened, we refer to the Face ID security manual released by Apple. Inside the pages it is explained how the face detection algorithm could be wrong on people under the age of 13, because they do not have the somatic features yet developed.
Then, it must also be said that Face ID “learns” over time and from mistakes. This means that if iPhone X does not detect your face, and then enter the code to unlock it, the data of the unrecognized face will be added to improve recognition even more.
We do not know if this could have happened, and the data of the child mixed with those of the mother. If we combine this fact, with the extraordinary similarity between the two, we can easily guess why iPhone X was wrong.
For this reason, if someone tries to unlock your iPhone, we recommend that you re-lock the screen and start facial recognition again to prevent their data from merging with yours.
In conclusion
We don't know if it's a serious Face ID problem, or a shuffling of facial data. Personally, I believe more in the second hypothesis. And you? Do you believe that such a similarity could fool iPhone X?
