Apple intends to bring the Face ID biometric authentication system introduced with the iPhone, to its Mac range, including both portables and desktops.
Just as Touch ID began on its iPhone before spreading to iPad, and then both the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, so Face ID is coming to Apple’s range of Macs. It’s been rumored before, and Apple has said that Face ID will come to more devices, but a new patent application is the first to specify that it will be brought to some form of MacBook.
“Light Recognition Module for Determining a User of a Computing Device,” US Patent No. 20200097747, is chiefly concerned with adding Face ID to MacBooks, although instead of those terms, it consistently refers to a light recognition module and a laptop.
Apple’s patent application stresses how users are storing sensitive information, and also that the capabilities of a laptop mean people use them to do ever more complex work —which is potentially a problem.
“By performing these complex functions, sensitive data associated with these users may be gathered and/or stored by these computing devices,” says Apple. “To prevent unauthorized users from accessing this sensitive data, these computing devices may incorporate systems and mechanisms for authenticating users.”
Read more at AppleInsider.com