From gait analysis to fingerprint theft, how worried should we be about the latest advances in biometric technology?

The Conversation · 🇦🇺 public Australia · May 26, 2026 · 1012 words · By Oli Buckley

Biometric Security Digital Privacy AI Vulnerabilities

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What to know about Biometric Security

The article discusses the prevalence and types of biometric technology, including physiological and behavioral systems. It highlights potential security vulnerabilities and privacy risks associated with these technologies while providing practical advice for users to protect their data.

Propaganda risk 20%

Claims checked 15

Techniques found 2

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center100%

Right0%

3 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

You unlock your phone with your face, your fingerprint sends your laptop whirring into action, you pass airport security by glancing at a camera.

Why it matters

Biometric technology has become so woven into the daily routine that for many people, it barely registers any more.

Common ground

These systems are usually fast, convenient and feel secure.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Appeal to Fear: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this Biometric Security story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Most modern smartphones store biometric templates in a secure chip that never leaves the device?
How does this story connect Biometric Security with Digital Privacy over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/from-gait-analysis-to-fingerprint-theft-how-worried-…

analyticsAnalysis

20%

Propaganda Score

confidence: 95%

Minor concerns. Some persuasive language detected, but largely factual.

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 2 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning

Loaded Language 80% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Appeal to Fear 60% confidence

Building support by instilling anxiety or panic in the audience.

Why it matters: Recognizing appeal to fear helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 15 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 8

schedule Pending 5

verified Verified By Reference 1

help Insufficient Evidence 1

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Claim 1: “Most modern smartphones store biometric templates in a secure chip that never leaves the device.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 2: “Japan’s National Institute of Informatics which in 2017 showed that usable fingerprints could be lifted from photos taken up to three metres away.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources, including Phys.org, confirm that researchers from Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) demonstrated in 2017 that fingerprints could be lifted from photos taken from three meters away.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nara Institute of Science and Technology (奈良先端科学技術大学院大学, Nara Sentan Kagaku Gijutsu Daigakuin Daigaku), abbreviated as NAIST, is a Japanese national university located in Ikoma, Nara of Kansai Science…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara_Institute_of_Science_and_…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Japanese government has established National Research and Development Agencies (Japanese: 国立研究開発法人, romanized: Kokuritsu Kenkyū Kaihatsu Hōjin) that fall under the Ministry of Education, Culture, …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Research_and_Developm…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Princess Akiko of Mikasa (彬子女王, Akiko Joō; born 20 December 1981) is a member of the Imperial House of Japan, a paternal second cousin of Emperor Naruhito, and the elder daughter of Prince Tomohito of…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Akiko_of_Mikasa

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 3: “In April 2026, financial security expert Li Chang showed Chinese TV viewers how AI tools could extract a celebrity’s fingerprints from a single selfie.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results from May 2026 confirm that financial expert Li Chang demonstrated the extraction of fingerprints from a celebrity's selfie on a Chinese TV show in April 2026.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang (Chinese: 黃仁勳; Wade–Giles: Huáng Jén-hsūn; Tâi-lô: N̂g Jîn-hun; born February 17, 1963) is a Taiwanese and American business executive and electrical engineer who is the founde…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jensen_Huang

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Sylvia Chang (born 21 July 1953) is a Taiwanese actress, singer, director, screenwriter, and producer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Chang

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co., Ltd., branded internationally as Z.ai, is a Chinese technology company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI). The company was formerly known as Zhipu…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z.ai

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 4: “Many banks and retailers now monitor how you interact with your device – from swipes, taps and scrolls to the angle you hold your phone, the rhythm of how you move between fields, and the pressure of your touch.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources confirm that banks and retailers use behavioral biometrics to track interactions like typing, swiping, and tapping for fraud prevention.

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web search NEUTRAL — Even Europe’s new privacy rules have exemptions for security and fraud prevention. A new digital privacy law in California includes behavioral biometrics on the list of tracking technologies companies…
https://www.wral.com/story/banks-and-retailers-are-tracking-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Behavioral biometrics keeps online transactions trustworthy by analyzing user behavior, biometric data, and device intelligence to build a digital profile of their patterns.
https://www.feedzai.com/blog/behavioral-biometrics-next-gene…

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web search NEUTRAL — Behavioral biometrics work by creating a baseline profile of an individual's behavior during the initial authentication process. This profile is then continuously updated and compared to real-time beh…
https://www.eunetic.com/en/blog/behavioral-biometrics-contin…

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Claim 5: “China’s authorities have been using this technology [gait analysis] for nearly a decade.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple reports from 2018 (VOA, Facebook) confirm that Chinese authorities have been deploying gait recognition software.

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web search NEUTRAL — Nov 6, 2018 · Chinese authorities have begun deploying a new surveillance tool: “gait recognition” software that uses people's body shapes and how they walk to identify them.
https://www.voanews.com/a/chinese-gait-recognition-tech-ids-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Nov 7, 2018 · Chinese authorities have begun deploying a new surveillance tool: “gait recognition” software that uses people's body shapes and how they ...
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2018/11/07/20…

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web search NEUTRAL — Nov 5, 2018 · Chinese authorities started to use “gait recognition” software. This software uses people's body shapes and the way they walk to identify them.
https://www.facebook.com/bangkokpost/posts/chinese-gait-surv…

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Claim 6: “Iris recognition is considered robust because this coloured eye muscle has around 250 measurable features – far more than a fingerprint – and remains stable throughout your life.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 7: “This followed a class-action settlement with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance in Illinois for US$92 million over similar allegations.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 8: “In the Chinese city of Hangzhou in July 2025, criminals reportedly tried to unlock a smart door using a photo the homeowner had posted online with his fingers visible.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

While Wikipedia confirms the existence of Hangzhou, no evidence was found in the search results regarding a July 2025 incident involving a smart door and a photo of a homeowner's fingers.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (IATA: HGH, ICAO: ZSHC) is an international airport serving Hangzhou, a major city in the Yangtze River Delta region and the capital of East China's Zhejiang pr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou_Xiaoshan_Internationa…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Hangzhou is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang province, China, situated at the intersection of the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and the head of Hangzhou Bay. Renowned as one of th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Hangzhou Metro (Chinese: 杭州地铁) is a rapid transit system that serves Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang province, China. The system opened on November 24, 2012. It is the 17th city in China to…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou_Metro

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Claim 9: “In July 2024, US tech giant Meta paid the state of Texas US$1.4 billion (£1.1bn) after running facial recognition on users without consent.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

help

Claim 10: “In the UK, police have made at least two arrests based on fingerprints lifted from photos: one from a WhatsApp image of a hand holding ecstasy pills, the other when a drug dealer was identified from a photo of him holding a block of Stilton cheese.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results to corroborate the specific arrests in the UK involving ecstasy pills or Stilton cheese.

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Claim 11: “Gait analysis – reading how you walk – is already used for security and surveillance purposes, from venue access to detecting potentially suspicious behaviour.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm gait analysis is used for security, surveillance, and identification in criminal investigations.

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web search NEUTRAL — 6 days ago ... Gait analysis – reading how you walk – is already used for security and surveillance purposes, from venue access to detecting potentially ...
https://theconversation.com/from-gait-analysis-to-fingerprin…

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web search NEUTRAL — In criminal investigations, abnormal gait patterns can be used as a potential means of identification. Suppose surveillance footage or eyewitness accounts ...
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11622936/

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web search NEUTRAL — 6 days ago ... Gait analysis – reading how you walk – is already used for security and surveillance purposes, from venue access to detecting potentially ...
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2026/may…

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Claim 12: “In 2023, the UK’s Biometrics and Forensic Ethics Group flagged gait recognition for ethical guidance.”

CORROBORATED

A web search result explicitly mentions the UK's Biometrics and Forensic Ethics Group flagging gait recognition for ethical guidance in 2023, and Wikipedia confirms the existence of the group (now the Science and Technology Ethics Advisory Committee).

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting and genetic fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_profiling

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Louise Jane Amoore, (born 1972) is a British geographer and academic, who specialises in geopolitics, biometrics, state security and the ethics of machine learning. She is Professor of Political Geog…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Amoore

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Science and Technology Ethics Advisory Committee (formerly Biometrics and Forensic Ethics Group and National DNA Database Ethics Group) is a non-departmental public body that advises the governme…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Technology_Ethics_…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 13: “AI voice cloning requires only seconds of audio to produce a convincing replica”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 14: “My research with colleagues even shows it’s possible to infer a user’s name and native language from the timing patterns of their keystrokes.”

CORROBORATED

Web search results indicate that keystroke dynamics can be used to ascertain identifiable information and that timing patterns are logged to determine user identity.

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web search NEUTRAL — However, user behaviours can also be used to ascertain other identifiable information about an individual. In this paper we build upon the notion of keystroke ...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016740482…

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web search NEUTRAL — Sep 6, 2021 ... Some of the parameters may indicate the way users make corrections (the use of backspace, delete keys), move across the text (pgup, pgdn, home, ...
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8434638/

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web search NEUTRAL — Jan 23, 2026 ... ... can (and do) log keystrokes and can determine timing. ... Joke's on them, I can break my right hand and alter my keystroke patterns whenever I ...
https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1qksfgi/why_do…

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Claim 15: “Biometrics fall into two broad families: physiological (fingerprints, faces, irises, even nailbed patterns) and behavioural (how you walk or type, the rhythm of your speech, the angle you hold your phone).”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results confirm the classification of biometrics into physiological and behavioral categories.

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web search NEUTRAL — A biometric technique is normally accompanied by some metrics that evaluate its performance.6Two types. of decisions can be made by a biometric system: classify an individual as genuine or as an impos…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260925814_A_behavio…

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web search NEUTRAL — This document is a seminar report on biometrics technology submitted by Pavan Kumar M.T. to fulfill requirements for a Bachelor of Engineering degree. The report provides an introduction to biometrics…
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/biometrics-technology-s…

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web search NEUTRAL — Cloud Security: Biometrics plays a role in securing cloud-based applications and services. Multi-factor authentication, including biometrics, adds an extra layer of protection for user accounts and se…
https://verpex.com/blog/privacy-security/biometrics-in-cyber…

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.