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Privacy by default.":["Aucune publicité, le respect de la vie privée comme règle absolue"],"People before profits":["Les individus passent avant les profits"],"Security through transparency":["Notre engagement de transparence"],"The best Proton Mail ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } deals":["Les meilleures offres ${ BLACK_FRIDAY } de Proton Mail"],"The world’s only community- supported email service":["La seule messagerie au monde soutenue par la communauté"]},"specialoffer:limited":{"${ hours } hour":["${ hours } heure","${ hours } heures"],"${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft } and ${ secondsLeft } left":["Temps restant : ${ hoursLeft }, ${ minutesLeft }, ${ secondsLeft }"],"${ minutes } minute":["${ minutes } minute","${ minutes } minutes"],"${ seconds } second":["${ seconds } seconde","${ seconds } secondes"],"Limited time offer":["Offre à durée limitée"]},"specialoffer:listitem":{"Create multiple addresses":["Créez plusieurs adresses"],"Hide-my-email aliases":["Alias « hide-my-email »"],"Quickly unsubscribe from newsletters":["Désabonnez-vous rapidement des newsletters"],"Use your own domain name":["Utilisez votre propre nom de domaine"]},"specialoffer:logos":{"As featured in":["Ils en parlent"]},"specialoffer:metadescription":{"Get an encrypted email that protects your privacy":["Choisissez une messagerie électronique chiffrée qui protège votre vie privée"]},"specialoffer:metatitle":{"Proton Mail Black Friday Sale - Up to 40% off":["Offre Proton Mail Black Friday - Jusqu'à 40 % de réduction"]},"specialoffer:newmetadescription":{"Get up to 40% off Proton Mail subscriptions this Black Friday. Find great deals on our secure end-to-end encrypted email plans.":["Obtenez jusqu'à 40 % de réduction sur les abonnements Proton Mail à l'occasion du Black Friday. 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In the case of big tech, if you pay nothing, you get used. I quit using Gmail and switched to @ProtonMail":["Vous avez ce pour quoi vous payez. Avec les Big Tech, si vous ne payez rien, vous êtes utilisé. J'ai arrêté d'utiliser Gmail et je suis passée @ProtonMail"]},"specialoffer:time":{"Days":["Jours"],"Hours":["Heures"],"Min":["Min"]},"specialoffer:title":{"And much more":["Avec en plus"],"Make your inbox yours":["Votre boite de réception sur mesure"],"Safe from trackers":["À l'abri des traqueurs"],"Stay organized":["Bien organisé"],"Black Friday email deals":["Offres Black Friday pour la messagerie électronique"],"Don’t just take our word for it":["Ce qu'en disent nos utilisateurs"],"Our story":["Notre histoire"],"Transfer your data from Google in one click":["Transférez vos données depuis Google en un clic"]},"specialoffer:tooltip":{"Access blocked content and browse privately. Includes ${ TOTAL_SERVERS }+ servers in ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES }+ countries, connect up to 10 devices, access worldwide streaming services, malware and ad-blocker, and more.":["Accédez aux contenus bloqués et naviguez en toute confidentialité. Comprend plus de ${ TOTAL_SERVERS } serveurs répartis dans plus de ${ TOTAL_COUNTRIES } pays, la possibilité de connecter jusqu'à 10 appareils, l'accès aux services de streaming dans le monde entier, un bloqueur de logiciels malveillants et de publicités et d'autres fonctionnalités."],"Easily share your calendar with your family, friends or colleagues, and view external calendars.":["Partagez facilement votre calendrier avec votre famille, vos amis ou collègues et consultez des calendriers externes."],"Includes support for 1 custom email domain, 10 email addresses, 10 hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Comprend la prise en charge de 1 domaine de messagerie personnalisé, de 10 adresses e-mail, de 10 alias « hide-my-email », du partage de calendriers et bien d'autres fonctionnalités."],"Includes support for 3 custom email domains, 15 email addresses, unlimited hide-my-email aliases, calendar sharing, and more.":["Comprend la prise en charge de 3 domaines de messagerie personnalisés, de 15 adresses e-mail, d'un nombre illimité d'alias « hide-my-email », du partage de calendriers et bien d'autres fonctionnalités."],"Manage up to 25 calendars, mobile apps, secured with end-to-end encryption, 1-click calendar import from Google, and more.":["Jusqu'à 25 calendriers, des applications mobiles, la sécurité avec le chiffrement de bout en bout, l'importation de calendrier en un clic depuis Google..."]},"Status Banner":{"At the moment we are experiencing issues with the Proton VPN service":["Nous rencontrons actuellement des problèmes avec le service Proton VPN."],"Learn more":["En savoir plus"]},"Status banner":{"Learn more":["En savoir plus"],"Please note that at the moment we are experiencing issues with the ${ issues[0] } service.":["Nous rencontrons actuellement des problèmes avec le service ${ issues[0] }."],"We are experiencing issues with one or more services at the moment.":["Nous rencontrons actuellement des problèmes avec un ou plusieurs services."]},"suggestions":{"Suggestions":["Suggestions"]},"Support":{"Sub category":["Sous-catégorie","Sous-catégories"]},"Support article":{"${ readingTime } min":["${ readingTime } minute","${ readingTime } minutes"],"Category":["Catégorie","Catégories"],"Didn’t find what you were looking for?":["Vous ne trouvez pas ce que vous cherchez ?"],"General contact":["Contact - 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The pros and cons of biometric authentication | Proton
Biometric authentication is a growing part of the tech landscape — it’s in our schools, offices, airports, government buildings, and more recently, in our smartphones. Apple’s introduction of Touch ID in 2013 has paved the way for fingerprint-, face-, and iris-recognition technology to leave the almost exclusive domain of law enforcement and emerge into the mainstream as a way to authenticate your identity and access accounts and physical spaces.
But while biometric data and its applications have taken the fast lane to success, their use also raises new issues around security and privacy that must be considered and managed. There are major risks that are unique to biometric authentication that aren’t present with other forms of authentication, such as passwords. Namely, you can always change your password if it leaks — but what if your password is your face? In this article, we’ll talk about how to understand such risks and mitigate them.
Biometry refers to the measurement and analysis of an individual’s physical traits, such as fingerprints, iris patterns, or even the way a person walks (as in “gait recognition”). This information is digitized by converting the physical characteristics (the ridges on a fingerprint, for example) into biometric templates comprised of data points based on specific formulas.
When a device or service uses biometry for authentication, the primary purpose is to verify that a person is who they claim to be by comparing their biometric data with previously collected and stored data.
There are several ways in which biometric data may be stored and processed, such as through database servers, encrypted tokens, or physical tokens. Typically smartphones use on-device storage of biometric templates, which ensures authentication occurs without any data being sent to a server. Thus, the biometric data remains secure as long as the device itself is not compromised.
Benefits of using biometric authentication
There are good reasons biometric authentication has expanded so rapidly. Here are the main ones:
Simplicity and convenience for the user
The overwhelming simplicity, at least from a consumer perspective, is a significant factor in the growing popularity of biometric authentication. After all, it’s much easier to place your finger on a scanner than to type in a 20-character password.
Higher authenticity
Biometry may provide greater levels of authenticity for users prone to weak passwords and PINs, which may be common to multiple users or easily shared. Fingerprints and iris patterns, however, are difficult to share or replicate (but not impossible). Unique identifiers are a necessary element for many applications, such as payments or access to secure spaces, making biometry the preferred choice.
Affordability
Technological advances have brought down the cost of components so that biometric authentication is now possible in a wide range of implementations. Consider Delta Air Lines, which offers an optional biometric check-in process to their fliers from curb to gate, saving passengers nine minutes per flight(new window).
Shoulder surfing
Hackers can try to break into your device or accounts by watching you as you enter your PIN code or unlock pattern. This is known as a shoulder surfing attack. Biometric authentication can help you be more resistant to this type of attack.
It is well established that organizations that collect and store users’ personal data are under constant threat from hackers. Even as Delta collects biometric information about its passengers, the airline sector has been plagued(new window) by data breaches(new window).
Because biometric data is irreplaceable, corporations need to treat it with the utmost caution. If one’s password or PIN were to be compromised, there is always the possibility of resetting it. But the same cannot be said for one’s face, fingerprints, or irises.
Tracking and permanent digital records
Biometric authentication is still in its early stages, yet it already poses serious questions about privacy. When biometrics are stored server-side, particularly in jurisdictions subject to surveillance(new window) and secret warrants(new window), you risk leaving a permanent digital record or potential tracking by government authorities.
For instance, it is well known that during the recent Hong Kong protests, the government used facial recognition to track protesters(new window). As CCTV proliferates, your biometric data can become a permanent digital tag that authorities can use to identify and track you for the rest of your life.
False positives
Biometric authentication methods often rely on partial information — i.e., a finite number of data points — to authenticate your identity. For example, in 2018, a team from New York University trained an AI neural network to fraudulently crack fingerprint authentication(new window) at a success rate of 20%. They relied on the fact that most fingerprint scanners only scan a portion of the finger. Common elements can be used to fool them into mistaken authentication in a manner similar to a dictionary attack(new window).
Not all facial recognition models are created equal, and even the best of them aren’t perfect. For example, the OnePlus 6 face unlock feature relies on the front camera and isn’t as secure(new window) as the Oppo Find X or Huawei Mate 20 Pro, which use 3D Infrared depth mapping(new window).
Because biometric authentication is inherently risky, Proton does not use it for account login. To access your Proton account, you must provide your password.
We also recommend turning on two-factor authentication (2FA), which requires you to enter an additional piece of information — a time-based, one-time password generated by an app on a device you own — before accessing your account. With 2FA enabled, even if your password is compromised, a hacker cannot log in to your account without also gaining access to your device.
Once you log in to your account, you may choose to add an extra layer of protection to your Proton Mail app in your app settings. In both iOS and Android, you can choose to lock the app and require a PIN code or biometric authentication after the app has been unused for a given amount of time. This provides both extra security along with convenience in a relatively low-risk scenario (i.e., you already have an active session on your device). Authentication takes place locally, so no biometric data is ever sent to our servers.
In Proton Mail for iOS, enabling Face ID, Touch ID, or PIN protection also turns on the AppKey Protection System(new window), which is an extra layer of encryption for your Proton Mail data, defending against certain kinds of malware and forensic attacks.
Of course, the security decisions you make depend on your threat model. Using biometric authentication is not as safe as using a passcode or logging off every time. But these solutions are worse from a usability perspective. Users with heightened threat models should also consider the implications of enabling biometric authentication when crossing borders or engaging with law enforcement.
If any device or service asks for your biometric information, check to ensure your data is stored locally on the device and not on a cloud-based server or transmitted over the network.
As a standard practice, avoid clicking on suspicious links or installing unverified third-party apps on your device.
Our mission is to build a safer Internet, and being informed about how your data is protected can empower you to make better decisions about the services you use. If you have any questions or comments about biometric authentication, feel free to join the discussion on our social media channels.
Proton Mail and Proton VPN are funded by community contributions. If you would like to support our development efforts, you can upgrade to a paid plan(new window). Thank you for your support.
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