It used to be that fingerprints were the key to identification, then it was your DNA. Today voice recognition, iris scanning and vein mapping are just some of the biometric parameters used for identification. Your biometric information is the most personal data that you will ever possess. It defines you, it protects you and it can be the key to discovering your future.

But we are slowly and sometimes unwittingly releasing this most of personal information.

Biometrics are widely used to unlock smartphones, they are linked to your passport, they buy your children's school meals, banks want to use them to authorise transactions and facial recognition software is scanning the CCTV network. Biometrics are already part of our lives.

But how easy are they forge? And more importantly how careful should we be about protecting this information? Can it ever be safe that you use your heartbeat as your signature?

This episode of Brainwaves explores the very personal world of our biometric data. Show less