Apple is sharing your face with apps. That’s a new privacy worry.

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Beyond a photo, the iPhone X’s front sensors scan 30,000 points to make a 3D model of your face. That’s how the iPhone X unlocks and makes animations that might have once required a Hollywood studio. Now that a phone can scan your mug, what else might apps want to do with it? They could track your expressions to judge if you’re depressed. They could guess your gender, race and even sexuality. They might combine your face with other data to observe you in stores—or walking down the street. Apps aren’t doing most of these things, yet. But is Apple doing enough to stop it? After I pressed executives this week, Apple made at least one change—retroactively requiring an app tapping into face data to publish a privacy policy.


Apple is sharing your face with apps. That’s a new privacy worry.