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Comment by BillinghamJ | Hacker News Reader

You're not limited to 4 digits. In fact, when you set up Touch ID, the phone prompts you to enter a longer text-based passcode on the basis that you shouldn't have to enter it often.

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The government has your fingerprint.

Which doesn't help them much because the fingerprint will only reveal the passcode if they gain physical access to the device's "secure element" and its contents (which is reportedly hard).

It is really surprising how much HN turns a blind eye to / lacks imagination for potential security issues just because it's Apple.

Well, actually it isn't surprising at all.

I'm inclined to reverse that. Whenever Apple tells the world about a way they're attempting to protect their users' privacy above and beyond what any other for-profit technology company of comparable size and scope has done, HN immediately tries to deconstruct it--which is by and large good, since we need to remember that no security model is perfect. But a small but vocal subset always demonstrates a remarkable level of imagination in presenting scenarios in which Apple can actively conspire against their users while remaining within the letter of their guarantee. I'm not positive this happens jut because it's Apple, but I have my suspicions.

You've got a lot of reasonable responses above.

I am certainly not "HN". If you want to argue/discuss, do so. I'm well aware that a "secure element" is never 100% unbreakable. But in the usecase the GP mentioned (government broadly gathers data), hiding the data in a separate hardware compartment will at least help.

I think it's just PR bullshit. Apple has been known to abuse the law. I'm sure some government gave them the green light to lie about this and have another backdoor.

My government doesn't have my fingerprint, but the US government does...

If you grew up in the US, they already have it. Every elementary school kid in the US gets fingerprinted.

EDIT: It appears I was wrong, this was only in LA county.

Uh, what? Neither I nor my children have had such an experience in public school.

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