Ever since Apple introduced the world of Touch ID, we could see a big boom of fingerprint readers on phones. Now this form of security is also in cheap phones. On the other hand, the fingerprint reader is on the display. But the readers on the display may not be as safe as normal.
Fingerprint scanning in the display may not be as safe as expected
Android Police Editor-in-Chief has recently published a tweet from the CES trade fair, where he was supposed to talk to a few people from Google about fingerprint readers in the display. Google is not very sure that optical readers are so safe to be used, for example, for payment confirmation . The company is now testing internally on the readers and maybe we will soon notice that, like facial scanning, fingerprint readers will not work to confirm payment
Another CES Story: I ‘ in heard Google is currently investigating whether current optic fingerprint sensor designs are safe enough to be used for TrustZone auth (mobile payments, banking apps, etc).
There is a real concern about FPRs.
The problem is that momentary fingerprint readers in the display are optical . This is the oldest available technology used on common phones years ago. In classical readers, now is mainly used capacitive technology which has better security. But it can not be integrated under the display. Manufacturers such as Huawei OnePlus Xiaomi and others have opted for an optical fingerprint reader on their phones. There is also the third option. It ultrasonic fingerprint readers . We could see them for example at Honor 10 . The advantage is, for example, that they work with a wet finger
Integration of the ultrasonic reader under the display is possible but quite demanding. It was also one reason why Samsung still does not have a fingerprint reader on its display on its phones. The head of the company last year had heard that in Samsung phones would be an ultrasonic fingerprint reader and not an optical as a competitor. We should be waiting for a month at Galaxy S10 . It will definitely be interesting to monitor the situation regarding the optical fingerprint readers in the display
