After testing 110 smartphones from multiple vendors, the Dutch Consumentenbond not-for-profit organization concluded that the face unlock feature in 42 of them can be circumvented using a high-quality portrait photo of the owner.
Therefore, 38% of all the devices they tested would allow malicious third parties to immediately unlock phones that only use facial recognition as a locking mechanism and to gain access to all the data contained within, from photos to sensitive banking and personal data.
Face unlock promoted by phone makers although still not 100% secure
This is quite worrying when considering that most smartphone makers are promoting the face unlock feature as the next step in securing one's data, highlighting it as the option to use over the classic unlock pattern and pin code. During their tests, the Consumentenbond examined the capabilities of the face unlock feature available in smartphones from Samsung, Apple, Nokia, Huawei, OnePlus, Oppo, Sony, BlackBerry, Motorola, Xiaomi, LG, Lenovo, HTC, Asus, Alcatel, and a few other manufacturers.
Out of all 110 phones, the 42 that were unlocked with a simple photo are listed below.
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