It seems like today’s the day for biometric unlocking woes. Not content with letting Google have that limelight, Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S10’s fingerprint scanner can be thrown off by ‘cheap screen protectors’. This means other people can unlock the device – and authorise app installations and payments – with their own fingerprint.
The issue seems to be relating to the use of the ultrasonic sensor which is pulling up both patterns in the screen protector itself and the air gaps between the screen and the protector. These factors are added to the biometric ID meaning that it’s possible for others to unlock the device.
Samsung is aware of the issue and will release a patch to remove the noise from the biometric print.
In the meantime, if this is a concern for you (and it probably should be) then you could just tear-off the offending screen protector (and hope nobody applies a new one) or disable fingerprint authentication until the patch arrives.
Have you experienced this issue? Tell us in the comments.
My Galaxy S10 came with a factory installed screen protector.
Does that make all S10’s at risk out of the box ?
No, Samsung say that it’s only certain brands. However if your unsure we’d recommend not trusting it.
My Galaxy S10 came with a factory installed screen protector.
Does that make all S10’s at risk by default?