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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.'"
"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.'"
Although I hear not buying a Xerox printer will.
Maybe he just wants to print anonymous, is that a crime nowdays?
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
To be lazy and NOT send in your product registration card!
....
I mean, seriously. How else would they know who bought it and how to get a name from that serial number? I guess maybe if the store kept your credit card info on file or something and associated it with the serial number, but how often would that happen?
Lesson learned, if you want to print hundreds of forged checks or counterfeit bills, pay for the printer in cash!
Actually, if you're going to do anything illegal, cash is king. Just print some up and, well,
Anyway, police officer friend of mine once who said that if you're going to do something illegal, do it big, do it once and don't tell anybody.
That "once" part of it is key, you could print up a bunch of cash one afternoon, enough to pay for the next printer (with cash, of course), then dispose of the printer.
Greed will get you in the end.
Alan.
One word: Kinkos
Two more words: Pay cash
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
This is old news.
There have been news stories about serial numbers being embedded in printing for years. The first I read of it, at least 7 or 8 years ago was the same yellow microprint from color inkjet printers, which was mandated by the U.S. Gov't, to prevent counterfit bills from being printed.
All I've ever done myself is scan in bills at the highest resolution, to show people the microprint (note the double lines around the portrait, one is really text).
It actually doesn't stop anything, people still print them. I remember back in high school there was a story in the local paper about some kids getting dragged away by the Secret Service for photocopying $1 bills and putting them in soda machines. They only had to do one side, and it didn't care about the color, so easy drinks. Our school had a better 'hack'. If you took a water pistol and sprayed water into the bill slot, it'd short out the electronics of it, and you could push buttons all day to get free drinks. I saw it done a few times.
But hey, just assume that anything you print is being tracked. Chances are pretty good that nothing you print is going to be all that interesting.
Extremely paranoid? Pay cash for your printer, and get someone else to actually purchase it. Or don't leave home, because 'they' may be watching. Ha!
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Of course a daisy wheel printer can be tracked forensicly anyway since they suffer the same "signature" issues that a typewriter does. Hammer based printers, manual and electric typewriters, leave distinct, identifiable, characteristics in the copy that they produce. For example, wear on the hammer, a tendancy to "drop" a letter etc.
I am invisble, and you can't see me.
You overlooked a vital problem in your plan.. The prints created by a daisy wheel are as unique to the printer used as fingerprints to a person, if not more so.
Shoot Pixels, Not People!
I hate to break your "They can't stop me i pay cash" party, but i think the idea of these serial numbers is so that if the police suspect someone and have evidence to get a warrant tehy can use printer data to secure a conviction.
Well, they can still ask the daisey wheel vendor, but they will get an "I don't know" answer.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
If I were doing something that I wouldn't want traced back to me, I would assume that any printer would leave unique markings on the paper, on purpose or not. Bullets have rifling marks, tires have unique markings, etc. Those aren't intentional. Also, the paper might be traceable in the same way.
:)
You can bet there's tricks they don't advertise on the discovery channel, particularly the intelligence agencies.
You can't be paranoid enough.
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
To add more spice to it, in Poland even for legitimate (in state's eyes) use of xerox machine one had to obtain a special permission.
Comparisons of laser printers' chips with Soviet Russia are, however, exaggerating. There are probably lots of possibilities to distinguish two copies printed by two laser machines. While giving the state the possibility not just to compare the output of two known laser printers (which I'm sure comes very handy when tracking false money, extortions or some con-man tricks) but to find the printer which printed any possible text is surely disturbing, there is no comparison with Soviet-style secret police. Soviets didn't have to bother with chips, they had people spying on other people, on their neighbours and spouses --- it always works better than technology. The best defence before Soviet-style supervision is assuring your country isn't run by such kind of people.
"Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead." (John Maynard Keynes)
This is hilarious for several reasons.
1) I never register a printer with the manufacturer after I purchase it. I also don't know anybody else who did either. It's a waste of time and an invasion of privacy.
2) Let's say a printer was never registered - and it was paid for with cash at a store like Best Buy. Good luck tracking down the buyer.
3) Even if both the above were not true and the manfucturer knew who originally bought it, one word foils their plans: Ebay. If you buy a printer on ebay, who knows how many hands it's been through before yours. While it is still possible to track it after a sale on ebay, it just got a whole hell of a lot harder.
No.
The USSR was doing this 30+ years ago. They collapsed 13 years ago (1991). Total span of 17+ years.
The U.S started doing this 20 years ago. We only found out now. So, by the USSR model, it should be collapsing anytime now. Now take a look around and ask yourself, "Is this the America I grew up reading about?"
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
First, this technology has been in use since the very beginning of color laser devices, even before you could use them as a printer. Meaning this started when a color laser printer retailed for close to $100k. It was there (along with other technology) to mark everything that came out of the machine. On the Canon CLC line there is a bar code imbedded on a plate next to the copier glass. Every time you hit the start button, it reads the bar code and compares it to the value stored on the controller board to make sure you had not monkeyed with it, then it prints that bar code all over the page with single yellow pixels. How did they track it? Easy, the thing cost over $75,000. Every one that left the factory was tracked by the manufacturer. They knew where every serial number went. The feds would call up those manufacturers a few times a year asking who a machine with such and such a serial number was sold to. Fast forward to todays commercial equipment and that same thing still applies. I can't vouch for whether you can run down to Best Buy and walk out with a color laser without Best Buy recording the serial number and tying it to your name, but it will dang sure still print identifying info on every page that comes out. It would not suprise me if most of the stuff you drag home marks its territory too, including ink jets. Even if the authorities can't look you up in a database and knock on your door, if they happen to raid your place and grab your printer, try to make new friends in prison.
Consider the number of bits required to store a serial number.
Assuming 8 digits of hexadecimal, that would give you 32 bits. So a little box 6 x 6 pixels would be enough. A laser printer has resolutions ranging from 600 to 2400 dpi. So you would need far less than one square millimetre to store such information. Even if you double the size of the box in order to have some sort of redundancy, that would still be far less than 1 square millimetre.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I have seen several arguments here that this is a perfectly harmless technology, and some of those arguments have been logical and valid. However, it still begs one question: If it is such a useful, valuable technology, why are the manufacturers not informing the customers of this "feature" in their instruction manuals or on their packaging? I checked the websites of Canon, HP, and Xerox, including the specifications of several laser printers. In none of the feature or specification listings is it said "Prints unique serial number to easily identify printer of every document!"
If this technology is so useful, wonderful, and defensible, please feel free to inform those who pay money for your products. They might have a different view to give you. There are legitimate reasons to remain anonymous. (Even if that's just that you want to.) A desire for anonymity doesn't mean that you're doing something illegal, and that mindset is extremely dangerous, getting into the "Well if you don't want cameras in your living room, what do you have to hide?" territory.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
I suspect that if this technology has actually been around for 20 years, it has gotten good enough to be nearly impossible to bypass.
Good enough? I doubt it. This is one time where security through obscurity worked. Considering there is not a live market and a real desire to remove these codes, it has not passed the test of many hands. A bunch of hackers can work collectively to get around an Xbox and a Playstation because there is the incentive of more functionality and thrill of experimentation that you can share with others. Printing money is not something there is a big following for and not something you advertise that you are interested in. I would assume many big time money printers people have got around this serial number issue but it can still be used to catch the other 99% that thgouht they knew what they were doing.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Many of the people who spoke out and signed the original Declaration of Independence were wealthy, and lost everything after they signed! Freedom of speech doesn't always come with no price tag. Sometimes people pay dearly for expressing their opinions, even in the "Land of the Free".
I am a Conservative Christian Libertarian (I know it sounds messed up). The sad thing is that there are many in our nation that have no problems with _more_ government control. These "conservatives" offer excuses like if you have nothing to hide, then why would you care? _I_ personally care because A) I have nothing to hide and B) if I did have something to hide it is none of your @##$@# business! Our government was never set up to be "big brother". Sadly we are almost there. Many of my fellow Christians are more then willing to give up their rights/liberties because they _think_ it will make them more "safe". They think that only "bad" people would want privacy and not want "big brother" to know your every move.
I am sorry but I will not give up my rights, liberty or privacy to make it easier for the government to catch a "bad" guy. As a "good" citizen, I am willing to help the government, police (I give them money every year), etc to stop crime, but my help stops when they try to encroach my rights. Yes, being able to print on a stinking piece of paper without the government tracking me is what I consider a right.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
Print the document - then go get multiple copies done at Kinkos, or some other copy centre.
This serves two purposes - firstly you will have two sets of dots overlaid on each other - presumably this will 'confuse' anything trying to read the dots. Secondly, the dominate signature will be the public access device - if the dots are hard to see by the naked eye, they will be very difficult to copy.
For the tracking to work they need to match a serial number to a user - i.e. the device has to be registered. For small consumer devices (e.g. the HP CLJ 2500) it is simple for the user to simply not register the purchase with the manufacturer, however these sort of devices are unlikely to be capable of producing anything which could be remotely be considered a good forgery.
Large colour devices often come with maintenance contracts attached, so if you knew the serial number and had a cooperative manufacturer, tracking the owner would probably be relatively simple, however you would also find that these devices are typically in a shared user environment (offices, copy centres, student resource centres, etc...).
Having said that, I work for Xerox and conduct audits for large corporate clients regarding what equipment they have and how it's used - even with access to the sales records, client asset registers and physical identifcation of units we frequently have problems identifying every device on a site back to original point of sale. Errors in how SN's have been entered into billing systems or asset registers is not uncommon, chassis or logic boards get changed during maintenance changing the actual or apparent SNs (very common with HP or Lexmark equipment). This would only work with seriously large hardware with fully tracked service histories.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World