Apple’s new MacBook Pro is thinner, faster, better than the previous MacBook Pro. It comes in the now famous space grey color. It even has an OLED touch bar that can display everything from emojis to Photoshop shortcuts. But in my opinion the best feature is “ditching passwords”. The new MacBook Pro includes Touch ID, a fingerprint scanning technology familiar to anyone with an iPhone. In fact, fingerprint identification has become a staple among almost all flagship smartphones.
Touch ID is a significant advancement in security though, not just for Apple users but for the entire computer industry. With Touch ID, once you enter your fingerprint in the Touch ID for MacBook, you can log into your computer with a tap, authorize Apple Pay purchases, and switch users when on a shared computer. Since it’s stronger than a password and easy to use, this will eliminate most of those pain-in-the-neck passwords, while improving security.
Your biometric information stays on your device, rather than connecting with some distant, vulnerable server somewhere. Simply put, no matter what you use Touch ID for, your fingerprint won’t wind up on any computer but your own, making it nearly impossible to hack unless someone has direct access to your device. That’s thanks to the other big addition to the MacBook Pro: Secure Enclave.
Fingerprint scanning is nothing new, but the MacBook can help normalize and popularize it. It’s going to drive Apple Pay on the web, saving you from ever filling out your credit card information again. And it will do it more safely than a password ever could. This is definitely touch and GO!