“…Google’s support of Apple biometrics offers a refreshing example of one tech giant’s willingness to work with a rival’s technology for the greater good of end user security.”

Google is now officially taking advantage of Apple’s sophisticated biometric security systems to help protect users of the iOS version of its Google Drive app.

First announced last month, the ‘Privacy Screen’ feature lets users secure their Google Drive accounts with the iPhone’s biometric security options. On older iPhones and the new, budget-friendly iPhone SE, that means a fingerprint scan can be used for account access; whereas on Apple’s main line of iPhone smartphones since the end of 2017, users can take advantage of the sophisticated Face ID 3D facial recognition system.

Privacy Screen gives users some configuration options in terms of how this biometric authentication technology is set up. Users can require biometric authentication every time the app is accessed, or they can give themselves a window of 10 seconds, one minute, or ten minutes to switch between other apps before authentication is required.

Google frames this new security feature as a means of helping to ensure user privacy, though it does warn that other things like notifications and certain Siri functionality might still make certain information available to users who aren’t registered for biometric access on a given device.

In any case, Google’s support of Apple biometrics offers a refreshing example of one tech giant’s willingness to work with a rival’s technology for the greater good of end user security. It’s also another sign of the ongoing mainstreaming of biometric authentication on consumer devices, with Google’s cloud storage platform being one of the world’s most popular across various companies’ mobile devices.

Source: The Verge