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Secret Printer ID Codes May Be Illegal In the EU
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "In response to a query from a member of the EU Parliament, an EU commissioner issued an official statement (.DOC) saying that, while they do not violate any laws, secret printer tracking dot codes may violate the human right to privacy guaranteed by the EU's Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. If you don't remember what these are, Slashdot has discussed the issue before. In short, most color printers print small yellow dots on every sheet in a code that identifies the printer and, potentially, its owner. The EFF is running an awareness campaign, and a couple of years back made a start on deciphering the yellow dot code."
So to stay private, then, one should print sensitive documents on yellow paper?
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
First topic on the agenda: biometrics for visitors.
Or was privacy only guaranteed to European Citizens?
1. Do not buy from the manufacturer.
2. Maybe pay cash when buying printer.
3. Do not send in warranty card.
4. Don't let a factory rep or facility service it.
If you can prevent the printer's serial # from being tied to your identity, you should be OK. Of course, some of the very high-end printers can only be bought from the manufacturer or a registered VAR, so don't use those types of printers for nefarious deeds.
I don't know about printers, but apparently with Canon digital cameras they will register the camera serial number with your name if you send it in to Canon for service.
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
If any of you have a blue LED (like those found on keychain or pen lights), you can fairly easily see the pattern of dots on a color laser printout (like anything printed in color from Kinkos).
This guy's the limit!
None of the printers that print the codes use any ink.
They are all color laser printers. In my color laser printer, even the "freebie" toner cartridges that came with the printer last for 1,500 pages, and then I replaced them after 2,000 pages with high-capacity cartridges that last for 4,500 pages each.
Also, I am pretty sure all of them use 4 colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, so that your "order confirmation" printing would only use the color toner that was needed.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
I love the sound of that.
however, in today's terror-terrorized (is that a new expression?) world, there IS no more 'right to privacy'.
I wish there was! but even in europe, there really is not a right to privacy.
even in the US constitution, is there ANY real clauses that talk about right to privacy? other than illegal search and seizure (which has been bastardized into 'we can invade your house and do a sneek-and-peek anytime we SAY so') - there is no right to privacy.
it should be added as a fundamental right, but I don't expect it anytime soon. too much power is gotton by violating your privacy. power is addicting and so the gov won't ever give THAT one back. horse has long left the barn..
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
My ... printer .- never -- prints ..- such . silly .-.. codes; -- In --- fact .-. I ... have . never .-.. seen .. such ...- a . thing! ...
I'd like to think the above paragraph is a joke. But it's not. Night is falling on the UK.
The EFF has some handy dandy info on this very subject, http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask where they're goin' and hook up with 'em later.
Even worse, what if you took a printer that doesn't print the codes, and got someone else's printer code, and printed that on the page?
Good way to frame someone?
"This must have come from your printer, the serial number is embedded in the page"
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
but all I got was yellow dots
Doesn't anyone notice that the EU's "official statement" was released as a .DOC file? So, if I'm a citizen of the EU, I have to pay money to Microsoft to participate in my government?
What's worse is that we're so inured to this sort of thing, nobody even noticed!
Fenestrae delendae sunt.
Are there any digital cameras that watermark photos with identifying information? So that if you take a photo and post it on the internet, the manufacturer/government could track it, even if you strip out the EXIF data?
I'm curious...
My bicyles
All of the documents produced in our office have a large brown ring stamped on them that can be traced back to the coffee mug of the engineer that produced them.
Have gnu, will travel.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
There are a couple of differences between license plates and this.
a)The license plates are clearly visible, while the printer code is intended to be unnoticeable by the user. I.e, most users don't even know they are being tracked.
b)When you drive your car you are using public infrastructure, such as the roads. In many countries there is no obligation to have license plates on a car you only use in a private space.
c) The license plate identifies one particular car, not [necessarily] the factory that made it. The printer code identifies the printer, not the paper it is on.
I'm sure there is more, but clearly the parent post is just another example that car analogies suck.
License plates allow you to be identified driving a registered vehicle in public. It's mere convenience that keeps us from wanting to unscrew them every time we drive onto private property (e.g., a parking lot or driveway). The government is saying, "You drive on our roads, you follow our rules". Fair enough, right? It's the government requirement of these laser printer codes that's an invasion of privacy. Maybe a fair (albeit insane) requirement would be that any documents posted in public be encoded with the dots. What's that quote by Ben Franklin or David Hume or Richard Jackson or somebody? "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
If you've known about this since 1997 why didn't you tell anybody ? The EFF only started working on it in 2005
> I'd like to know why this is such a big deal to individual people first off.
Because some of us actually organise against the machinations of the state, perhaps you've heard of extraordinary rendition the US govt. has been doing or the 30,000 Argentines who were disappeared between 1976 and 1978 for opposing their govt.
It is extraordinarily naive of you to think that having previously secret (thanks in part to YOU) invisible identifying marks on every document printed from your printer isn't a cause for concern.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Now with Clinton and Obama talking about mandatory health insurance and unionization, we could be out of business next January.
I wish the government would just leave me alone and quit watching every move I make.
Unless they're a socially conscious whistle-blower. Then they can talk about any goddamn thing they want.
Breakfast served all day!
This is the same EU where there are cameras on every corner in the UK? The same EU where cameras track, record, and transmit license plate numbers to central servers nationwide in Germany? The same EU where you register where you live with the government? Where many personal records are available and shared by government offices?
And they are concerned whether printed paper contains a code that is not even tied to a person but merely a print engine? Don't make me laugh.
...to prevent counterfeiting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
It removes your ability to put up anonymous flyers and handbills.
But I suppose you could silkscreen it after printing it.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Best suggestion yet.
Yes, in theory adding random dots would introduce noise into the signal and potentially degrade it to the points it's no longer useful, but only if you can interfere with the pattern. Put another way, unless you know the location of the dot codes, to reach the level of noise necessary to obscure you'd have to cover the page; there would be so many random yellow dots so as to be perceptible.
P.S. - If you can get some, print a color page on black paper (preferably semi-gloss), the dots stand out really well
They stand out just fine on white paper under blue light, as one of the EFF pages illustrates.
1. Every color laser printer made in the last 10 years from every manufacturer that I have ever encountered uses the "yellow dots" tagging.
Then I guess you haven't encountered HP 4500 or HP 8500 series printers (maybe they don't need to be repaired as much?). One of the other EFF pages lists a number of other printer models that don't use yellow dots (which isn't to say that they don't use some other kind of tagging).
-- Alastair