Phil Schiller Says iOS App Developers Won’t Get Access To Touch ID, Yet

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Apple’s new home button fingerprint scanner received a ton of attention at today’s keynote thanks to its sub-epidermal skin layers, 360˚ readability,  laser cut sapphire crystal, and the fact that its going to make buying stuff with your iPhone painless as ever.

All that new tech is great and could lead to some really exciting and convienent uses for third-party apps, but after today’s keynote Phil Schiller told AllThingsD that iOS developers aren’t going to get access to Touch ID right now, if ever.

Apple says that it won’t store Touch ID info on its iCloud servers, and that the data will be encrypted and locked in a lair, deep in the heart of the iPhone 5s’s A7 processor. The fingerprint sensor will allow users to not only unlock their device with the scan of a finger, but also authenticates users when making purchases so that passwords are a thing of the past.

While Apple has reassured users that Touch ID data will only stored locally, the recent ambush of NSA leaks have caused some Apple fans to worry that their biometric data won’t be as secure as they hope.

 

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