Apple submitted a patent that describes a way to catch thieves using the Touch ID function embedded in their products.
Touch ID May Be Used to Catch Criminals
A team of inventors at Apple submitted a patent that describes how Touch ID can be used to identify criminals via fingerprint detection. The proposed plan of action is to use the feature to detect if unauthorized users are using the devices.
The team proposes that the biometric data that can be collected by the smart devices (photographs and fingerprints) are good ways of identifying criminals. A scenario is proposed where a computing device (for example an iPhone) is stolen or used by an unauthorized user. The device upon detection (by biometric identification) can then prompt the user to enter one or more passwords, pins or other access methods to use the device.
Automatic synchronization of the biometric sets can be utilized to a remote server (Apple) as a means to store secure samples of the user credentials.
The smart devices can also actively take photographs or videos of the thieves and send them to the users.
Apple has contributed a number of patents over the years, but have not introduced all features into their products. At the moment this is only an idea that is probably under consideration, and we may not see it implemented in the future.
