Jan Krissler, a skilled hacker and member of The Chaos Computer Club, demonstrated in a 2014 Hamburg conference how someone’s fingerprint can be replicated solely based from a medium-range photo of their thumb.

Japanese professor from the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Isao Echizen, decided to dig into the matter even deeper and conducted a recent experiment using simple software to extract fingerprint data from selfies under conditions such as high camera quality, being at-most ten feet away (medium range), and good lighting. Not only does the common peace-sign-pose of a selfie put you at risk, but the simple gesture of waving or a thumbs-up can put you at risk for identity theft.

Unlike passwords, fingerprints cannot be changed. In a changing world, biometrics are becoming more and more common as a means of security access from phones, door locks, and bank accounts. These threats, although few as of now, have already been the cause of scams and fraud. Despite these few and uncommon cases, using biometrics for your important accounts and smartphones continues to offer more security over passwords and PIN numbers.