Here is the terrifying reason why you shouldn’t do the peace sign in your pictures

After reading this you won’t pull that pose ever again.

When it comes to camera poses, the peace sign is generally a go-to choice – an easy selfie to take and a guaranteed Instagram hit, championed by celebrities and bloggers alike.

You can’t scroll through your social media newsfeeds without stumbling across dozens of them – and if we’re honest we’re all guilty of posting a few.

A recent study, however, has just revealed that that very pose could be a threat to your security – yes, really.

By just showing your fingerprints in a digital image, you could be putting yourself in danger of having your fingerprint data stolen, and with fingerprint recognition on the rise, that could give away access to almost every aspect of your life.

Your bank details, your phone and computer files, your criminal record - all accessible through your fingerprints, and all at risk if you like to pull that innocent peace sign in your Facebook photos.

Japan’s National Institute of Informatics (NII) recently conducted an experiment, their findings proving that photos showing fingerprints, even from nine feet away, could easily be copied and stolen.

‘Just by casually making a peace sign in front of a camera, fingerprints can become widely available,’ explained NII researcher Isao Echizen when talking to the Sankei Shimbun newspaper. He continued: ‘Fingerprint data can be recreated if fingerprints are in focus with strong lighting in a picture.’

Well now that we’re all suitable terrified, what can we do about it?

The National Institute of Informatics are said to have developed a transparent film that when attached to the fingers, can hide the prints, combating this very problem. The technology, however, won’t be ready for another two years so in the meantime we should probably just avoid using the peace sign.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to invest in some gloves.