Samsung Emphasizes Security and Convenience of S8 Biometrics

As it starts to promote its new flagship devices in earnest, Samsung is putting a strong emphasis on the security and convenience offered by the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

The stars of the show are, of course, iris scanning and facial recognition. Samsung says that the latter will actually improve with use, learning to recognize the user from a variety of angles; and both will kick into gear as soon as the device’s display is activating, allowing an almost instantaneous unlock of the device without the user having to do anything for authentication beyond looking at it. These features become even more convenient with Samsung Pass, a mobile password management system built into the Samsung Internet Browser, which will use biometric authentication to automatically fill out usernames and passwords when users log into certain apps or websites.

As for security, each device will only register a single user’s iris information, helping to ensure that it can’t be accessed if it falls into the wrong hands; and both the facial and iris biometrics are encrypted in the Knox security platform. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ also come with an app called Secure Folder, which allows for the storage of encrypted information, and can be locked with biometrics.

At a time of rising awareness about digital threats even as consumers use their phones to access more and more sensitive data, Samsung’s emphasis on the security and convenience of its new devices’ biometric capabilities could prove to be a winning argument in the marketplace.