Why Rocking a Peace Sign in Your Photos Can Put You in Danger

Sharing fun selfies on social media may seem innocent, however, this can be dangerous for your security. It turns out that some popular photo poses, like making a peace sign with your hands, can reveal personal information. Later on, this information can be used against us by scammers.

Bright Side wants to warn our readers to always be alert when posting on social media. So today, we want to tell you about some research that uncovered how we can unconsciously reveal our data online.

Photos of our fingers can expose us.

Japan’s National Institute of Informatics (NII) did some research by testing photos of a subject taken by a digital camera from about 9 feet (3 meters) away. They found that it’s possible to copy the subject’s finger vein patterns from it. Thanks to advanced fingerprint recognition technology, the appendages can be scanned, copied, and then used.

The better the picture’s quality, the more dangerous it can be.

Our smartphones keep getting better and boast advanced cameras that are able to take high-resolution pictures. The danger comes when photos taken with them get posted online. This raises the risk of personal information being leaked. According to researchers, good focus and good light in a picture are enough to recreate data from fingerprints.

Our stolen data can then be used against us.

If your information gets stolen, it can be sold online on some black market websites, for example. We use our fingerprints to open various apps and devices where we can easily manage our financial activities. Once scammers receive access to your personal information, they can use it to get into your bank account and other personal accounts.

It’s not hard to imitate one’s fingerprints.

Another threat that revealing fingerprints can pose is the creation of a printed replica that can fool biometric scanners by using conductive ink. For example, researchers at Michigan State University have proven that there’s no need for any special equipment to make this recreation. An inkjet printer, conductive ink, and regular paper were enough to fool a fingerprint scanner.

There are several ways to protect yourself.

A researcher from Japan’s National Institute of Informatics went further into the investigation and developed a clear sticker that had a fake finger vein pattern imprinted on it. It’s supposed to help to prevent hackers from taking the real data from your fingers when you show them in photos or use them on different devices.

To be on the safe side, you can try to secure yourself by simply changing the pose of your fingers when you take a picture. Apart from this, you can also improve your security by not using fingerprint authentification on your phone to unlock it or get access to important apps.

Do you often take selfies? What are your favorite poses?