<i>I've lost count of the number of times I've heard someone say, "don't use biometrics because you can't change your fingerprints". That's an absurd statement... because you can. There are acids, blowtorches, belt sanders and the good old boxcutter, to name but a few approaches</i><p>None of those will change your fingerprints, they'll grow back unless you took off so much skin that your fingers are scarred and the prints won't grow back. Which doesn't really help with the supposed problem that if someone steals your fingerprints, you can't easily change them to another pattern.<p><i>My kids, for one. They're sneaky little buggers and I could envisage them observing my password as I type it into my PC. I can't, however, see them having the sophistication to lift a clean print off a glass, melt down a bunch of gummy bears and create a prosthetic that could fool the fingerprint reader on my PC.</i><p>I think it won't be too long until they can dust your fingerprints, take a picture of it, then have it 3d printed on a substrate that will fool a simple fingerprint scanner.