Consumers who have purchased the Google Pixel 6a report that they can unlock the smartphone using unregistered fingerprints. The exact cause is still unclear.
Google finally unveiled the Google Pixel 6a last week; the budget phone from the Pixel 6 series. Leading up to the sale of the smartphone, Google rolled out another update to improve the performance of the in-display fingerprint scanner. Despite this, the scanner in the Google Pixel 6a is plagued with problems. Journalists complain about the scanner’s speed, among other things. That’s the least concern for Google, though – after all, the scanner’s security doesn’t seem guaranteed.
Fingerprint scanner Pixel 6a
Various Reddit users report that the Pixel 6a can be unlocked with unregistered fingerprints. An owner reports that he has only registered his thumbs on the smartphone, but that the device can also be unlocked with his index finger. The problem – which several reviewers say existed before sales started – doesn’t seem to recur on every device. 9to5Google reports that it cannot reproduce the vulnerability on its test instances.
No details are known about the cause of the problem at this time. Google has not yet responded to the commotion. It is possible that with the upcoming August security update, which is now rolling out to the Google Pixel 6a, Google has introduced a fix for the problem. However, that is not certain, as the update is not yet widely available.
Problems Google Pixel 6 Series
Google’s problems with the fingerprint scanner on the Pixel 6a are a repeat of what the company has experienced before with the 6 and 6 Pro. While those devices were not affected by this security issue, consumers did suffer from faltering or non-functioning in-display scanners for months. This is in addition to other software and hardware issues that crop up, such as poor network coverage.
Google does not officially sell the Pixel 6a in Belgium and the Netherlands. That applies to all Pixel devices that it has launched to date. It previously sold the Nexus smartphones in the Benelux. Those devices were the predecessors of the Pixel series. Web shops such as Belsimpel and Fnac do sell the 6a. In the case of Belsimpel, it concerns gray imports; for Fnac appliances, this concerns stock from the French Fnac webshop.
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