Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Fingerprint readers
Raised as a usability problem by 8 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2013–2025), in 8 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Fingerprint scanner often fails, forcing paper card fallbackUnreviewed
20132026- Fingerprint reader fails to read worn fingerprints during ID card renewal2025-07-30
- Fingerprint unlock fails for days after sanding or windsurfing2024-05-20
- Fingerprint readers fail to recognise fingers damaged by cuts and burns2022-12-06
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 8 complaints
- Fingerprint reader fails to read worn fingerprints during ID card renewal2025-07-30
- Fingerprint unlock fails for days after sanding or windsurfing2024-05-20
- Fingerprint readers fail to recognise fingers damaged by cuts and burns2022-12-06
- Fingerprint unlock fails when fingers are wet or wearing gloves2022-05-23
- Fingers often unreadable due to dirt, cuts, oil, wrinkles2021-10-05
- Fingerprints stop reading reliably in dry weather or after manual labor, needing retraining2020-12-27
- Fingerprint scanner often fails to read the user's prints, forcing fallback to paper cards2018-03-02
- Swipe-style fingerprint readers were frustratingly difficult to get right2013-09-24