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

Re:Countermeasures?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but it probably should be. How many terrorists would LOVE to get their hands on a printer capable of printing documents without being traceable? Sounds like it is time to write another letter to my congressman to get this potential loophole fixed.

Please excuse me,

[Corellon Larethian]

but could y'all come up with some other books than just "1984" and "A Brave New World", once in a while. Christ. I will pay you to to reference the monitors in "Ender's Game". Or the poison snoopers in "Dune". Or the Chief of Naval Operations in "Rogue Warrior". Even the alien guy in L. Ron Hubbard's sci-fi would be a step up. Just anything other than 1984. Not forever. Not forever. Just a week. Maybe a tenday. Anything is better than nothing at this point. Please visit your local Barnes and Noble's or public library. Read a Harry Potter book or something.

Re:Those rat b---

[Julia Cameron]

• Did you know that every time you touch something, you leave an invisible mark that's unique to you and can be used to track where you've been?

Yahbut, what do you expect? You knew God was a neocon... right?

Re:I was right!

[cheekyboy]

And how usefull is that if its made in 1991 and you bought it of someone in 1997.

Especially if its so 4th hand it could have come from a church/police depot.

Print, then destroy your printer like in office space.

But real criminals OWN banks, ie the federal reserve and INFLATE (i mean COUNTERFEIT 500billion) every year in 'fake' money.

Note, the USD isnt real, its been fake since 1913 when federal reserve was setup privately, its just paper only worth the trust of the govt in getting income taxes to pay for it.