Apple announced on Monday at its 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) a new authentication system that should provide better privacy protections compared to similar products from Facebook and Google.
The new
Sign in with Apple system is advertised as fast, secure and privacy friendly. It allows users to sign in to a third-party application with their Apple ID, while making it more difficult for apps to track them.
Developers can add the Sign in with Apple button to their applications and users only need to tap it in order to authenticate via FaceID with a new account. The apps can request the user’s name and email address, but the new sign-in system allows them to hide the real email address and instead provide a randomly-generated address from where emails are forwarded to the user.
According to Apple, the new authentication mechanism works on iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS, and it can also be added to websites and apps running on other platforms.
Sign in with Apple is expected to become available for beta testing this summer. Once it becomes generally available later this year, developers will be required to add it to apps that support third-party logins.
