Fingerprint sensors and scanners haven’t been used very much in the consumer space for the last decade. Having a fingerprint sensor was more of a novelty rather than a necessity, and thus it didn’t really appear in anything.

Have you heard of the Motorola Atrix?

However, there is one exception: The Motorola Atrix, released in 2011. You’re probably like: “What’s that?” It’s the first smartphone to have a fingerprint sensor. You’re probably also thinking why you haven’t heard of it or why the feature wasn’t publicized as much as it could have been. Even the Wikipedia article only mentions the sensor 2 times.

2 years later, and the iPhone 5S has a fingerprint scanner (called by Apple “Touch ID”). Obviously, it has been publicized to a much bigger extent than the Motorola Atrix. It’s pretty obvious why: The iPhone is a popular and well-known product in the technology world.

Reviewers praised the iPhone’s implementation of the fingerprint scanner. Unlike the Motorola Atrix, the iPhone didn’t require a swipe, but rather a easy to understand hold-and-unlock. Not only has Apple put in a fingerprint scanner, it has also made it easy to understand by consumers.

But it isn’t perfect.

You may have heard on the news that anyone could take your fingerprint from say, the touchscreen itself, and make a rubber “fingerprint” with it.

I’m not going to talk about that (primarily).

Fingerprints are highly secure, but everything has a flaw. Fingerprints have three flaws:

1. It can be cloned (but rather hard to do so by a average Joe.)
2. You only have 20 fingerprints (including your toes), compared to the millions of billions of passwords you can make.
3. A robber (or anyone with similar intentions) can just unlock your phone just by having YOU in their vicinity, compared to having a password remembered in your mind (which is the most secure place).

2 and 3 worry me the most. You only have 20 “fingers”. You can only store a certain amount of fingerprints on your device (for security purposes). Take the toes out of this equation. That is 10 fingers, which means a 10 percent theoretical chance of a malicious person to get the first attempt right. Most people use their thumb or index finger, which therefore makes that stat useless. Your phone is “in theory” just as secure as if it was secured with a password.

All ways to secure anything is not perfect. A lock can be cut. A key can be remade. A passcode can be easily found if they are standing and looking at your screen. Encryption can be cracked, albeit with a lot of time.

However, the fact that fingerprints are touted as “the best way to secure” something is just not right. Anyone could just grab your arm (say you were intoxicated) and just unlock it.

In conclusion, fingerprints scanners are not perfect. Fingerprint scanners are better used stationary or not movable at all. The iPhone (and the Motorola Atrix, several Samsung products, and the HTC One Max) are portable and it increases the risk because the closer you are to your phone, the easier it is for anyone to unlock it without your consent.

Is there a way to fix this?

The only way (at least, in my opinion) to fix this security issue is two-factor authentication. Yes, I agree that having a password after scanning your fingerprint is really dumb and sometimes ruins the point of having a fingerprint scanner there in the first place. However, it’s the only (or one of the few) ways to make the fingerprint scanner almost 90 percent secure.

(This is my first Medium post. I know, who in their mind would even dare to forcefully grab your hand and unlock your phone? What are the chances, especially since everyone is so nice in public? Since your phone is going to be unlocked when you use it in public, this post has no point, right? I know this article is full of flaws and I know you have a lot of counter-arguments. However, I made this article to increase awareness that fingerprint scanners aren’t the “perfect passcode”. I just wanted to write something today. Thank you for reading.)