Turns out there's a huge danger in pulling the 'peace' sign in your social media pics

Publish date
Monday, 16 Jan 2017, 11:34AM
Photo / Getty Images

Photo / Getty Images

Well, there goes our signature move.

If you're a fan of the peace sign, (let's be honest, it's a classic go-to soc med pose), then we need to tell you some bad news.

According to Japan’s National Institute of Informatics (NII), pulling a peace sign and uploading the image to social media leaves the fingerprints of your index and middle finger exposed.

Why does that matter we hear you ask?

Well, those are the same fingers many now use to verify identities when logging onto smartphones, laptops, and other digital devices.

"Just by casually making a peace sign in front of a camera, fingerprints can become widely available," NII researcher Isao Echizen told Sankei Shimbun newspaper.

Since the quality of camera phones these days is SO good, collecting a clear and usable print from a photo is now a lot easier than anyone thought it could be. This new technology could mean that people have access to your contacts, private photos and videos, bank accounts.

This might sound a bit extreme and you'd have to have the correct technology to do so, but we thought it was worth letting y'all know! There are also ways you can prevent becoming a victim to this technology. Firstly, just make sure you're in low lighting when you pull your peace sign.

And the other pending alternative? Apparently, a transparent film designed to attach itself to fingers and disguise prints is currently being developed. WHAAAAT? Imagine how cool you would look pulling those out... we feel they would really take away from an 'in the moment' photo... 

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