Roger Fingas
Apple has silently added another condition under which an iPhone or iPad user has to unlock their device with a passcode, despite having Touch ID enabled, according to a report.
iOS will now ask for a passcode if it hasn't been unlocked that way for six days, and Touch ID hasn't been used in the last eight hours, MacWorld said. A quoted Apple spokesperson claimed the rule has been in place since iOS 9 was released in Sept. 2015, but MacWorld noted this is inconsistent with the iOS Security guide, which only mentioned the change starting May 12. Apple declined to offer an explanation.
The company has several such rules in place, the two most common forcing a passcode unlock if a device is rebooted or hasn't been unlocked for 48 hours. Others require a passcode after new fingers are added to Touch ID, a person tries five unsuccessful Touch ID logins, or someone issues a remote lock via Find My iPhone.
If the discovered rule is genuinely new, it's not clear how or when Apple might have made the change, since iOS 9.3.1 was released in March and 9.3.2 arrived earlier this week.
Regardless, the tactic is presumably a means of reinforcing the security of Apple devices. It could potentially have an impact on U.S. law enforcement, which has already begun seeking court orders compelling people to unlock iPhones with their fingerprints.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
35 Comments
great security update. makes a lot of sense. esp in light of recent opinions that the gov can force u to unlock ur phone via touch id but not via passcode.
It certainly has been that way for a while, as I have consistently had this experience. I was wondering why I kept having to enter my passcode if I hadn't used Touch ID in several hours. I was under the impression the rule was 24 hours, and never got an explanation for why it was much shorter than that. I wasn't the only one complaining about this "bug" either. Now we know.
It's not new - it has been there for some time. I'm not sure if it started with iOS 9 but it was early on in the 9.x releases. It was confusing at first because the prompt was about "after 48 hours" and I had been using my iPhone every day. The message has since been updated to eliminate the confusion.
No TouchID within the last 8 hours? The time to obtain a court order to compel a fingerprint unlock will exceed this in almost all cases.