All of those that watched Apple’s launch event on Tuesday will be well aware of the moment that the first demo of the new Face ID feature failed to work. However, while many were quick to criticize this as a fail, Apple later confirmed in a statement with Yahoo that this isn’t what happened at all.
Apple explained that that specific iPhone X had been handled by several people before it was set up for the demo by Craig Federighi. This means that Face ID tried to authenticate the faces of everyone who had already used the device and after failing with Federighi it meant that it required a passcode.
“People were handling the device for stage demo ahead of time,” says a rep, “and didn’t realize Face ID was trying to authenticate their face. After failing a number of times, because they weren’t Craig, the iPhone did what it was designed to do, which was to require his passcode.”
Arguably, this only demonstrates that Face ID worked exactly how it is supposed to. Much like Touch ID, when Face ID does not recognize the user it will prompt for a passcode to be entered before it attempts to recognize a fingerprint or a face again.
Despite this, there have still been a number of concerns raised about the privacy of this new feature, with some arguing that the system could be fooled by a photo or a mask.
