What is biometric authentication?
Biometric authentication uses a physical characteristic such as a fingerprint, face, or iris to verify you. On modern devices the biometric template stays in secure hardware and unlocks a locally stored key. It is a convenient replacement for typing a PIN, not a replacement for the PIN itself.
- Topic
- Authentication
- Also called
- fingerprint login, Face ID, biometrics
- Reading time
- 1 min
- Reviewed
On this page
Biometrics unlock, they do not authenticate remotely
Your fingerprint is not transmitted to any website. It releases a key held in your device's secure element, and that key does the cryptographic work. This is why a device PIN always exists as a fallback: the biometric is a convenient gate in front of it, not a substitute for it.
The property that makes them different
You cannot change your fingerprint. A leaked password is replaceable; a compromised biometric template is not. This is the argument for keeping biometrics as a local unlock mechanism rather than as a shared credential sent to services.
Sources
These primary references support the terminology and current security guidance used in this definition.
