Would it be possible to create aliases for fingerprint and facial data?
Would it be possible to create aliases for fingerprint and facial data when setting up biometrics? Biometrics are often promoted as the most secure login method, since only I possess my specific fingerprint and face. But what if my fingerprint and facial data were to be leaked? I see users claiming that biometric data is safe because it is stored on the device rather than in the cloud. I admit I’m no expert on the subject, but this is a concern for me.
Mundane_let
shared this idea
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Arham Blake
commented
I think this is a reasonable privacy concern, although biometric authentication works a little differently from a normal password. In many modern systems, the actual fingerprint or facial image isn't sent to the service for authentication. Instead, the device typically keeps the biometric data in a protected hardware-backed area and uses it to produce or unlock an authentication result.
The important distinction is that biometrics are generally not something you can simply change if the underlying data is compromised. That's one reason device-based biometric authentication is often combined with a PIN or passcode and why the biometric template should ideally never leave the trusted device.
An alias could be useful as an additional privacy layer for account identification, but it wouldn't really solve the problem of compromised biometric data itself. I'd be more interested in seeing strong guarantees that biometric templates remain local, cannot be exported, and aren't recoverable as the original fingerprint or face.
It's a good question because convenience and security aren't always the same thing, and understanding where the biometric data is actually stored matters a lot. For other online resources, https://adoptmevalues.de/ can also be worth checking out.