Slashdot Mirror
Canon Blocks Copy Jobs Using Banned Keywords
aesoteric notes that a future version of Canon's document management system will include the exciting breakthrough technology that will OCR your printed and scanned documents, and
prevent distribution of keywords. Documents containing the offending words can be sent to the administrator, without actually telling the user just what word tripped the alarm. The article notes that simply using 1337 for example will get around it.
You're doing it wrong. If there's anything I've learned in dealing with people, it is never try to create a technical solution to a social problem. If someone wants to make a copy of some secret document, they will quickly learn that the copiers have this software installed and will use a different machine. You need to figure out why they would want to make copies of something you don't want them to, and solve that problem. I could see this being marginally useful for preventing accidental release of information, however the article seems to state that they are trying to stop deliberate users.
A determined user who has guessed the prohibited keyword could get around it by simply substituting numbers or other characters for letters, such as z00 instead of zoo, representatives for Canon conceded.
Sewage Treatment Facilities - "Our duty is clear."
"The system can optionally inform the user by email that their attempt has been blocked, but without identifying the keyword in question, maintaining the security of the system."
Until the user decides to compare his blocked page with blocked pages from other letters or does a binary search for the forbidden word. Glad they thought this through.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Maybe because the photocopier is not enforcing "CONFIDENTIAL DO NOT COPY" -- it goes way beyond that, checking a blacklist of words? It is not that this technology itself is evil, it is more that it can be used for all sorts of evil things.
You seem to think that these machines will only be purchased by corporations. What gives you that idea? How do you know that public libraries won't have these machines installed? What about schools? The problem is that this technology can and most likely will be abused. Public libraries and schools already filter websites; this will take that sort of censorship to an entirely new level.
Palm trees and 8
This has nothing to do with foul language and everything to do with people walking out the door with account numbers, medical records, credit card info, social security numbers and other valuable private information.
Then copy your own damn papers, its not like copiers are futuristic alien technology that only high end corporations have access to.
I mean damn, I know slashdot is paranoid, but this is ridiculous; this is for corporate enforcement, nothing more.
I renewed my card at Enoch Pratt a few years back, and the librarian looked over my record, said, "Oh, they were collecting SSN's back then--let me just delete THAT from the record..." Not your typical bureaucrats, there, not at all. They're not in it for the money or the power.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
Have you considered that the glass platen on the copier may not be load rated?
will be some of the first 'banned words', I bet. Only in Chinese, not English.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
This doesn't PREVENT people from doing anything. It actively ENABLES people to get fired...or blackmailed...
And the sysadmin gets a lot of interesting emails.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Care to elaborate where you think this happens. Most Librarians (grade school excluded) I know adamantly preserve privacy and enable access to information and despise and fight vigorously against anything that tries to infringe on those ideals. On the other hand if a Library (particularly Universities) does not control it's own computers (i.e. separate IT dept. that doesn't answer to Library heads) then your privacy is probably not protected in the same way with regards to internet access.
Beware of those who profit off the docile and persecute the unbelievers.