How flashing a peace sign can set you up for identity theft

Flashing the peace sign in a selfie could be setting you up for disaster.

The “zoom-and-enhance” technique that earned derision in the TV crime procedurals of recent years might not seem so ridiculous when current phone cameras are capable of capturing a fingerprint accurately enough for someone to steal it.

Isao Echizen, a professor at the Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division of the National Institute of Informatics, told Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun that he had successfully obtained fingerprints from photos of exposed fingers taken from up to three metres away.