New technologies are not perfect!

Few days have passed since Apple’s big day. New iPhones 5s and 5c has been shown and (in case of some countries) are already in the shops. Reports from Apple shown that new models, combined with iOS7 have yet again broke sales records. Over 9 million iPhones have been sold. that is almost double of what we had last year, when iPhone 5 was introduced. We can only congratulate Apple on great marketing and wish something similar to ourselves. But what all this has to do with privacy, anonymity and VPN services. Well… quite a lot actually. You are all well aware of necessity of preserving you anonymity and privacy in the internet and in the real world. You need to remember, that although “the web” and real life sometimes look like two, completely separate realities they do interconnect on many different levels.

Also, you should always bear in mind that technology, its all aspects is constantly moving forward. If you remember, 20 – 30 years ago the worst computer crime one could commit was writing a virus. If attached to popular game (that was pirated a lot) in the worst cases it was blocking your screen or erasing your data. No one could have thought about all crimes hacker can commit now, identity theft, bank fraud, fake sales on-line, industrial espionage, DDoS attacks and many, many more. You know that Internet is way more dangerous than it used to be and that what you do on-line can have big impact on your life. With that in mind most of you is using best VPN to hide IP, to hide yourself and your data!

However there is one more thing you should always have in mind – what goes in the internet stays there. And no one can foresee how world, technology will change and how things you do/share today may affect your life “tomorrow”.

Now, we get back to “new iPhone problem”. Touch ID feature is the thing we have problem with. Not only we are quite sceptic (at least for now) about this new, awesome Apple’s feature. We admit, it looks great, it sound great and new iPhone sounds like truly cool device, that can read your finger…. but…

You share you personal biometric data. And since it is the first time such thing happens on such scale and is run by private company it should rise some questions. And it does. US senator Al Franken has raised 12 different questions in regard of this new technology. All have been out in letter and send to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. We are all awaiting reply.

What are the main concerns?

• whether the fingerprint data stored locally on the mobile phone chip in encrypted form could ever be stolen and converted into digital or visual form that would be usable by hackers or fraudsters
• whether the iPhone 5S transmits any diagnostic information about the Touch ID system back to Apple or any third parties
• how well customer fingerprint data will be protected and kept private
• the exact legal status of such fingerprint data.

(by BBC)

You need to realize that if you loose you password, ID or anything else it can be changed/blocked/suspended. But what if you loose your fingerprints. What if they digital image will be stolen today, stored and perhaps used in 20 years when worlds technologies will change? Perhaps today you are just teenager… but in 20 years you might become someone important. Are you sure that loosing you biometric data  (or giving them away today – if Apple will own them) will not be an issue in future? We are not so certain. So, if today you use VPN to help maintain your privacy and anonymity, we ask you to always consider all pros and cons where new technology and possibilities are concerned.