About the ID fingerprints? Am I the only one so in constant fear and doubt that thinks this would be a great way of bulk collecting the fingerprints of ANYONE?
Why would they take such a risk?
I don't recall the exact wording of that law, IMHO it already covers such argument, but if not, it just needs a single sentence amendment. Government certainly can grant immunity against pretty much any civil claims.
They also can pass a law stating "Any and all contracts between Apple and 'gareim' shall be considered null and void.", though they probably won't do that - but adding an exception to the laws regulating advertising truthfulness is trivial. In fact, they could simply revoke those laws and then noone could bring any class actions for 'being sold a product on a lie'; class actions as such were only made possible by specific regulations and congress could eliminate the whole concept of class action suits if they wished to.
I don't recall reading NSA can now force companies to include finger sensors, and then force them to collect data they wouldn't be collecting otherwise.
That NSA can't force a company to include fingerprint sensors in their new phone?
Delete your fb, g+ and twitter accounts. There will be a social price to pay, but it's still not too great for a significant amount of people. For many, though, even that is costly.
Get rid of your Nokia, Apple or Android phones. Suddenly, harsh. Still possible, because there's some alternatives, but if you want to avoid US and Chinese companies (srsly, Chinese), your options are limited and not well-known.
And, you've done both. Um, most SSL implementations. Your bank account. You'd have to go cash only.
Seriously, there isn't much we can do in any immediate way. Just vote the right way, and talk to people. Less glorious than pointlessly sacrificing yourself, sure, but actually works.
edit for clarity
1)They said the detection gets better every time you use it. So my guess would be that multiple versions of the raw fingerprint data are stored inside the A7 chip. (That information never leaves the chip.)
2) You can use your fingerprint to authenticate apps like iTunes, as well as third party apps. For this, yes I am sure they will use some hash that cannot rebuild the fingerprint.
I thought the password got hashed and sent out to Apple's servers to authenticate?
If so, wouldn't a new fingerprint based password have to do the same thing?
According to the press release, "fingerprint information [...] is never stored on Apple servers or backed up to iCloud." But nowhere do they claim it doesn't ever leave the phone. It looks like this leaves Apple the option to upload the data to "trusted partners".
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/09/10Apple-Announces-iP...
If you have doubts about the scanner, then don't buy an iPhone 5S. There's nothing much more that can be done besides what's being done already. And for others who know and don't care, that's their decision.