Color Laser Printers Tracking Everything You Print

It's not new, but it's getting noticed: Jordan writes "Yahoo! News is reporting that several printer manufacturers are now and have been for some time embedding (nearly) invisible serial numbers in every document you print with their color laser printers, allowing law enforcement to track any such document back to the printer which printed it. The technology, ostensibly created to track down money counterfeiters, was created by Xerox about 20 years ago. A Xerox researcher says that the number-embedding chip lies 'way in the machine, right near the laser' and that 'standard mischief won't get you around it.'"

Comments

Engadget

[Linuxthess]

Well I'm glad someone else here is reading Engadget and followed the subsequent link to the PC World article.

Re:Those rat b---

[bersl2]

Nobody prints with green ink. That's a primary color in RGB, and surely nobody prints in RGB. The printing primary colors are CYMK: Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, and blacK. No green.

Re:Countermeasures?

[libra-dragon]

Yellow and Blue(Cyan) make Green(cash)

Common knowledge for those who work on them

[p51d007]

Anyone in the business of repairing any full color laser printer, photo copier etc, is usually told of this in certification class. At least it is when I go to school on these. On our full color copiers & printers, they specifically tell us that if you attempt to make a color copy of any "money" it will lock up, requiring a phone call to unlock it, and a visit from someone in a black suit and dark glasses LOL. We make a blank copy, and get out a high power loop, and you can see the faint yellow microdots that contain the information. A few years ago, some idiot bought a full color copier, and started on one end of the country, driving to the other end passing off phony money. When the treasury agents got the copies, they looked up the serial number and traced it back to the dealer who was more than happy to supply the information, and they got the guys vehicle info (he wasn't smart enough to fudge his name, etc when he bought it) and they caught up with him, with the machine in his van, and loads of fake bills. Personally, I don't care if they put serial numbers on this, you can't see them anyway, plus, if you are STUPID enough to forge documents, you deserve what you get!

HS soda hacks

[r00t]

Here's two:

1. Just grab a drink. This works on some machines,
with some choices of drink, if you have long and
skinny arms.

2. Put two pieces of 2-inch clear packing tape
together, so that the sticky side is in. On one
edge, include 1/8 inch of a bill. So about 98% of
the bill is not taped. Give yourself about two
feet of tape hanging off the bill. Soon after the
bill goes in, yank it out.

Note: only do this if you have permission from
the machine's owner. :-)

Re:Countermeasures?

[keraneuology]

I'm curious to know how you arrived at a universal human right of anonymity

Please refer to:

TALLEY v. CALIFORNIA, 362 U.S. 60 (1960)

McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n (93-986), 514 U.S. 334 (1995)

Very relevant is the quote from McIntyre:

"The decision in favor of anonymity may be motivated by fear of economic or official retaliation, by concern about social ostracism, or merely by a desire to preserve as much of one's privacy as possible. ... Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation -- and their ideas from suppression -- at the hand of an intolerant society."

While one can reasonably question anonymity as a "universal" right applicable in all times under all conditions, these times should be the exception rather than the rule with the burden falling on those who say that the restriction should apply rather than on those who say not.