With Apple’s iOS 8, Your Fingerprint Can Become the Master Password

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Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, discussing the fingerprint sensor at the company’s developer conference in June.Credit John G. Mabanglo/European Pressphoto Agency

Passwords stink. That was the lesson learned from the recent episode in which hackers broke into the Apple accounts of a number of celebrities.

And not only are passwords weak protection against break-ins, they are also tough to memorize when complex, and a pain to reset when you forget them.

But when I set up my new iPhone 6 earlier this week, I took a glimpse into a future without passwords. It was replaced with something no one could easily replicate, and something that was with me at all times: my fingerprint.

By following a few steps, I was able to set up my iPhone to log into websites I regularly use with a touch of my finger. No more passwords. I was relieved when I effortlessly logged in to my bank, my Facebook profile and my Amazon account.

Apple’s fingerprint sensor, called Touch ID, is hardly new. It was introduced in the iPhone 5S as a feature for logging into the phone instead of punching in a code.

But along with the new iPhone 6, Apple recently released iOS 8, its new mobile software system for mobile devices. It includes an important feature that allows third-party apps to hook directly into Apple’s native apps.

With iOS 8, Apple also opened the fingerprint sensor to work with third-party apps (whereas before it could primarily be used only to log in to the phone or buy apps through the App Store). With these tweaks, Apple only just recently unlocked the true potential of its fingerprint sensor.

One caveat: Setting up the device to accept fingerprints for entering passwords was not very simple. It required installing the free third-party app 1Password on my iPhone. Then I had to follow some steps to create a shortcut to 1Password that could be accessed inside Apple’s Safari web browser.

After that was set up, I went into the security settings of the 1Password app and enabled Touch ID to work. And on top of that, I had to use 1Password to log in to every site by typing each of my passwords — just once — to store the password inside the app.

But from there, when logging in to the websites from Safari, I could use my fingerprint to enter my user name and password. You can also set this up to use your fingerprint to enter credit card numbers for shopping online. It saves valuable time, plus it feels safe because your fingerprint becomes the master password.

No more tedious memorization or typing. Imagine if and when the fingerprint sensor makes it way into not just Apple’s iPads, but also its laptops. While it doesn’t look like the password will go away anytime soon, memorizing and typing it in could soon become a thing of the past.

Good riddance.