Face ID thinks I m my brother. I paid with his iPhone in the store

My brother's Face ID system on the iPhone 11 Pro recognized me and allowed me to unlock his phone. I even shopped through Apple Pay.

Face ID recognizes two people

When I took my brother's iPhone 11 Pro in my hands, I was surprised when it turned out that Face ID in the device recognizes me in every case, treating me as the owner.

So I can unlock the phone via biometrics:

And also authorize payments using Apple Pay:

In the video below, my brother shows a locked iPhone. Then he unblocks him with his face and locks him back. The smartphone also unlocks when I look at it.

When we realized what was happening, we entered the Face ID settings as soon as possible. A typical picture greeted us:

Face ID allows you to unlock your iPhone, shopping in the iTunes Store and App Store, Apple Pay payments, auto-fill passwords and login to the application, including the bank's application.

Although we checked the settings and quickly came to the conclusion that Face ID recognizes my brother and me in each case, we decided to make the final test. We went to the store, and at the checkout Łukasz gave me his iPhone. I pressed the side button twice, authorized the transaction and paid with iPhone for purchases.

Importantly, in every other case Face ID on the brother's iPhone 11 Pro works correctly. The security will not allow the phone to be unlocked by other people (we checked it). In addition, Face ID on my iPhone X does not recognize Łukasz. So it works in such a way that I can unlock his smartphone, but he, using the same type of security can not authorize my.

And the last thing: when I picked up the iPhone 11 Pro for the first time, only I was looking at it. There was no situation that Face ID first recognized his brother and then upheld the decision that he was dealing with one person looking at me. I mention this because in Internet threads about similar cases, I found quite vague explanations to justify the authorization of two different people while looking at the iPhone at the same time. Yes, I know, strange and illogical, it is worth mentioning after all.

Are me and my brother alike?

Yes, although we are not twins and we are 4 years apart. We also have other hairstyles, different glasses, different beards. The resemblance is certainly visible, but the popular term that we are similar to two drops of water cannot be used.

What does Apple say?

This situation is extremely rare. In the case of scanning the faces of random people, Apple estimates the likelihood of unlocking from 1 to 1,000,000. The Cupertino company is more cautious about siblings, because on the page dedicated to Face ID we can read:

The statistical probability is different for twins and siblings with similar features, as well as among children under the age of 13, because their characteristic features may not be fully developed. If you have any concerns about this issue, we recommend that you authenticate with the code.

As you can see, Apple took care of its interests (and possible lawsuits). Nor does it provide the likelihood of authorization for related persons.

There are two conclusions from the described situation. The first is obvious: there is no one hundred percent secure, even based on biometrics. Secondly, an iPhone user whose phone has been unlocked by a second person via Face ID will probably never be calm again.



Face ID thinks I'm my brother. I paid with his iPhone in the store

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