Here's the shocking reason why you should never make the 'peace' sign in photos

That's the warning from a team of cybersecurity experts: you should avoid having your two fingers form the 'peace' sign in photos. It's not a question of what's considered 'cool', but rather the security of your personal data.

Indeed, while this simple gesture might be well be loved by The Beatles, The Spice Girls, and peace activists around the world, it can reveal a lot about your identity to an informed eye. It can pose a risk to your data security and even lead to identity theft.

A study about the subject was published in 2017 by a team from Japan's National Institute of Informatics. Here's what we know.

The risk of impersonation

Thanks to advances in technology and photography, a simple zoom in on a high-resolution photo of your fingertips will allow cybercriminals to recover your fingerprints... and therefore potentially impersonate you, since each person has unique fingerprints.

According to the experts, the entirety of the prints can be reconstructed when the photo was taken at a distance of less than 1.5 metres from the person photographed. If the photo was taken at a distance of 3 metres, it is still possible to recover 50% of the prints.

Read more ⋙ Gmail: Billions warned of YouTube email that steals crucial data, here's how to spot it

Read more:

⋙ WhatsApp users: Beware of costly new scam that will put your money and data at risk

⋙ Facebook marketplace warning issued after woman loses all her money in scam

Fingerprint recognition

Therefore, this data can be extremely useful for anyone who wants to impersonate you: since a lot of protection systems are based on fingerprint recognition, starting with your smartphone, it is very easy tounlock them. Indeed, hackers could use your prints to access your phone, computers, and even your bank details.

One obstacle remains: the cybercriminal still needs to have physical access to the digital recognition sensor. But no doubt it's only a matter of time, and technology will soon make up for this lack by giving these ill-intentioned people the possibility to find a way around it.

This article has been translated from Gentside FR.

Sources used:

Elle: 'The Scary Reason Why You Won't Want To Flash The 'Peace Sign' In Pictures From Now On'