Fascinating reason why dead people can't unlock phones with fingerprint ID

Perhaps an irrational fear that some people might have involves the security features of your smartphone after death, but a bizarre simulation reveals the fascinating reason why your fingerprint or face cannot be used to unlock your phone once you pass aware.

While passcodes offer a decent level of security, there's nothing quite like the safety you'll feel locking your phone behind your fingerprint and face. A passcode can be guessed and entered by anyone - but only you have your face and fingerprint after all.

With how much data we store on our phones right now, it's vitally important that it's protected with adequate layers of security, hence why new settings are being added to Android devices that force the phone to restart after a certain period of time, returning it to it's most secure state.

But what happens when we die? Could someone hypothetically use our dead body's fingerprint and face to easily gain access to our vital information and gadgets? Thankfully one strange simulation shows why that's not the case.

Created by simulation king Zack D Films, this short video explains why, despite being the 'same' as they were when you were alive, your fingerprint and face suddenly won't work to unlock your phone after you've passed away.

"If you cut off a dead person's finger, you might think you could use it to unlock their phone," the video hypothesizes. "But the sensor actually checks for the body's natural electricity, and this stops when a person dies, making the finger useless."

This is a fascinating but worthwhile addition by phone companies that 99% of people won't ever encounter or realize exists, but it could be the difference maker that saves your phone from being unlocked.

With it taking roughly 12 weeks for the average human's body to decay after death, as shown by another horrifying simulation from Zack D Films, there's plenty of protection from cybercriminals who were willing to go the extra mile to access your data.

Fingerprint ID miraculously doesn't work when you're dead, as the phone won't detect any electrical signals (Getty Stock)

You don't even need to die for this to be useful either - it means that nobody could simply lop off your finger and steal your phone to get access.

While Face ID doesn't have any electrical signals to send to your phone, there's also a neat trick implemented into the technology that stops it from working once you've died too.

"Now if you tried to use the corpse's face to unlock it, the sensor would look for slight movements to make sure it's a real living person, but it would quickly notice that you're dead, and you'd still be locked out."

This is the same reason why a picture of someone's face can't unlock their phone, as it'd be quite a significant vulnerability in the technology if it would let this pass you through, even if its technically still their face.