Should I use a password or fingerprint?

With all the data today’s computers and phones have on them, they need to be properly secured. After all, you’re walking around with a device that can access your social media, email, and even bank accounts. Do you really want to risk someone stealing your identity because your phone wasn’t properly secured?

So which one should you use, a password or your fingerprint?

Fingerprint vs. password

As you might expect, there are pros and cons to each. A strong password can be very secure. However, it can be a pain to type it in each time you want to unlock your phone or computer.

A fingerprint, on the other hand, is completely unique to you. But your device may have problems detecting your fingerprint properly at times.

If you’re using your phone in view of others, it’s fairly easy for them to see you type in a PIN or simple password. So in those cases, you should use your fingerprint for authentication.

Are phone fingerprint scanners secure?

That brings us to a legitimate concern. Are phone fingerprint scanners really secure? We’ve talked before about using a secure password and even a password manager system. But that doesn’t exist for a fingerprint scanner.

You’re probably not surprised to learn that fingerprint scanners can be hacked. However, they’re usually not low hanging fruit for hackers, so they don’t bother doing the work needed to hack them.

So if you use your device in view of others, use your fingerprint. For all practical purposes, it will be more secure than a password.