[extrapickles]

They even go beyond the assumption of sniffing passwords from users head on the iPhone.

Thanks to the face/fingerprint reader, most people are incapable of divulging their pin/password to someone claiming to be the county password inspector.

While in an absolute/legal sense it’s less secure, for day to day use by most people it’s more secure as there is no password for someone to watch you enter, or socialy compel you to give them.

[isostatic]

Don't know about face id, but with finger ID you certainly need to know the pin number for all the cases that finger ID doesn't work.

More than that, it's easier for a security guard to point the phone at your face / push your thumb on the sensor than get you to reveal a passcode

[CharlesW]

> Don't know about face id, but with finger ID you certainly need to know the pin number for all the cases that finger ID doesn't work.

This is the case with Face ID as well. I use my PIN more with Face ID than I did with Touch ID.

> More than that, it's easier for a security guard to point the phone at your face / push your thumb on the sensor than get you to reveal a passcode

It's fairly easy to discreetly disable, FWIW. Just "squeeze" your phone for two seconds (i.e. press the power button and either volume button) to disable Face ID. It also won't work if you're looking away or have your eyes closed.