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FIDO Alliance

Six 'FIDO Alliance' stories April 2016 - May 2022
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A world without passwords could further lock users into Apple and Google ecosystems

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy May 30 2022 - 6:03 am PT
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A world without passwords | iHone 13 against out of focus coloured background

The prospect of a world without passwords can’t come soon enough for me, but a problem has been raised with the FIDO standard designed to eliminate the need for them. Namely, that abandoning passwords could make it harder to switch between ecosystems.

If you have your passkeys setup for Apple devices, there is nothing in the standard allowing you to transfer them to an Android device, or vice versa …

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Apple, Google, and Microsoft to extend support for FIDO ‘passwordless’ sign-in

Avatar for Filipe Espósito May 5 2022 - 5:00 am PT
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In early 2020, Apple joined the FIDO Alliance, an open industry association created to increase the interoperability of authentication methods and reduce reliance on traditional passwords. Now Apple, Google, and Microsoft have committed to expanding support for the FIDO Standard, moving toward a universal “passwordless” sign-in method.

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Opinion: The three things I think Apple needs to do to unlock the full potential of Touch ID

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 6 2016 - 7:50 am PT
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I mused recently about the limited support for 3D Touch, not just from third-party developers but even by Apple itself. That’s not something I consider a huge deal: the novelty appeal of 3D Touch soon wore off for me, and I decided I could happily live without it when switching from the iPhone 6s to the iPhone SE. It was just something that struck me as odd.

But exactly the same issue exists with Touch ID, and that’s something I do think is a big deal.

Passwords are horrible. They were fine way back in the days when we only needed a handful of them, but these days you need a password to do everything from transferring photos from a camera to an iPad through to ordering a pizza. We probably each have hundreds of the darned things.

And passwords are especially horrible on iOS devices – where we have to switch an on-screen keyboard between letters, numbers and symbols multiple times to type a single password. That’s a problem that ought to have been almost completely solved by Touch ID – yet that’s not the case …


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