Touch?ID & Privacy

Touch?ID is designed to protect your information.


Touch?ID lets you use your fingerprint to unlock your device and make purchases with Apple Pay, App Store, and Apple Books.

Touch?ID can be used to unlock your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Using the Touch?ID sensor, Touch?ID determines whether a fingerprint matches the enrolled fingerprint. Other uses of Touch?ID include making payments with Apple?Pay, making purchases within the App?Store, and authenticating within apps.

Touch?ID data — including mathematical representations of your fingerprint — is encrypted and protected within the Secure Enclave. Touch?ID doesn’t store any images of your fingerprint, and instead relies only on a mathematical representation. It isn’t possible for someone to reverse engineer your actual fingerprint image from this stored data. Touch?ID will incrementally update the mathematical representation of enrolled fingerprints over time to improve matching accuracy. Touch?ID will also update this data when it detects a close match but a passcode is subsequently entered to unlock the device.

Touch?ID data does not leave your device, and is never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else.

You Have Control Over Touch?ID

If you choose to enroll in Touch?ID, you can control how it is used or disable it at any time. For example, if you don’t want to use Touch?ID to unlock your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Touch?ID & Passcode, enter your passcode, then tap to turn off iPhone Unlock or iPad Unlock. On Mac, go to System Settings > Touch?ID & Password, then click to turn off “Use Touch?ID to unlock your Mac.”

To disable Touch?ID, on iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Touch?ID & Passcode, enter your passcode, then tap each of the stored fingerprints under the Fingerprints section and tap Delete Fingerprint for each stored fingerprint. On Mac, go to System Settings > Touch?ID & Password, then click on the fingerprints you would like to remove and confirm the deletion when prompted. Doing so will delete Touch?ID data, including mathematical representations of enrolled fingerprints, from your device. If you choose to erase or reset your device using Find My or by erasing all content and settings, all Touch?ID data will be deleted.

Touch?ID and Apps

Within supported apps, you can enable Touch?ID for authentication. Apps are notified only as to whether the authentication is successful. Apps can’t access Touch?ID data associated with the enrolled fingerprint.

Published Date: September 20, 2024