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Could such an innocuously innocent act as giving this universal “peace” sign be putting people at risk of identity theft? It seems so absurd, but as researchers at the Japan’s National Institute of Informatics (NII) have recently pointed out, the internet isn’t always such an innocent place.
The peace sign, while used around the globe, is mostly favored by Asian girls and Donald Trump.
The NII say that fingerprint technology is becoming more widely available, used now to log on to tablets and smartphones. So you can see where this is going, right?
“Just by casually making a peace sign in front of a camera, fingerprints can become widely available,” said NII researcher Isao Echizen in an interview with Japanese newspaper, Sankei Shimbun.
“Fingerprint data can be recreated if fingerprints are in focus with strong lighting in a picture,” the same researcher told Yomiuri TV.
It was also pointed out that a potential identity thief doesn’t necessarily need advanced technology, and that pretty much anyone could potentially copy fingerprints if they had the inclination to do so. No, we’re not trying to you ideas….
According to The Japan Times, the NII has developed a transparent film which contains titanium oxide and may be attached to the fingers in order to hide prints, but will not prevent them being used for identity verification.
