[A] criminal or group of criminals try to find your passcode. They employ various mechanisms to do this, such as simply observing you from a distance or tricking you into revealing your passcode by befriending you in a cafe or a bar and taking your phone to snap a photo and turning it off.

Once they get to know the passcode, they simply snatch the victim's iPhone forcibly.

With the passcode known and a stolen iPhone in hand, criminals need mere minutes to block you from ever accessing your Apple account and everything attached to it, such as photos and contacts. They usually disable Find My iPhone to make it impossible for you to locate your phone and remotely wipe data. The next step is draining your financial accounts.

That's not unique to Apple though. Why is this news?

Apple's policy doesn't allow users back into an account if a recovery key is enabled.

Oh. So the thief not just changes the Apple ID password, they generate a recovery key thus ensuring that Apple will not help the true owner of the device.

And the solution?

The spokeswoman pointed out that using Face ID and Touch ID can help you protect yourself from such incidents.

That makes for a convenient way for Apple to force biometrics onto the public.

No thanks.