To the surprise of… not very many people, it has emerged that the OnePlus 6’s Face Unlock system can be fooled by a picture of the phone owner’s face.
Twitter user @rikvdujin this week posted a video that shows the phone being successfully unlocked by a friend armed with a printout of @rikvdujin’s face.
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It takes his friend a few attempts to beat the system, but it’s still a worrying finding. Furthermore, @rikvdujin says it can be tricked by black-and-white pictures too.
I printed my face to unlock my OnePlus 6 for the lulz… it worked ¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/rAVMq8JKBr
— rik (@rikvduijn) May 29, 2018
In OnePlus’ defence, no face unlock system is fully secure. The facial recognition system used by the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 was tricked soon after the phone came out, and even the iPhone X’s much-lauded Face ID system can be fooled by a mask.
What’s more, OnePlus doesn’t allow anyone to use it to authenticate payments from Google Play or log into banking apps. You can turn to the phone’s fingerprint scanner for that.
“We designed Face Unlock around convenience, and while we took corresponding measures to optimise its security we always recommended you use a password/PIN/fingerprint for security,” OnePlus told PhoneArena.
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“For this reason Face Unlock is not enabled for any secure apps such as banking or payments. We’re constantly working to improve all of our technology, including Face Unlock.”
Would you ever trust a smartphone’s facial recognition system? Share your opinions with us @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.