Digital security at your fingertips

A lot of people are used to checking their smartphones first thing in the morning to catch up on the news. And these days, they have probably heard about Elon Musk finally acquiring Twitter and becoming its CEO. He’s already imposing several changes, and more are to come. But, what does that have to do with fingerprints and security?

I promise I’m not a robot

First of all, one of the biggest issues Musk wants to address is the need to “authenticate all humans” and reduce the number of bots and fake accounts. That’s why, now, anyone can buy the blue check, the one that was limited to celebrities, politicians, famous people, journalists, and renowned personalities.

Why? In theory, to reduce bots and fake accounts. Those that disturb the public conversation, and public opinion – at least, during elections or big world events, when those bots are known for pushing misinformation.

Therefore, and considering the previous point, today there are different alternatives to “authenticate people” and eliminate those bots. 

From optical to face recognition, which has been used for entertainment with those funny Instagram or Snapchat filters, but also to commit fraud and identity theft, thanks to AI (Artificial Intelligence) which can be used to create Deepfakes.

In fact, deep fakes allow you to edit videos in which they use someone else’s face, who was not there in real life. One of the first deep fakes ever made was the one with Tom Cruise.

These types of activities can be really dangerous if used to commit fraud, like using a well-known businessman’s face to invite others to participate in a Ponzi scheme. Depp fakes might make you believe you are talking to a millionaire and not someone trying to scam you.

To avoid this, one of the safest and most trustworthy technologies is fingerprint verification, something we are now used to using almost every day in so many settings: on our phones, at the bank, to open our own house, etc.