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July 30, 2005
Is your printer spying on you?
I've heard about this before, but the Electronic Frontier is all over it. As it turns out, your printer is spying on you. It's printing unique secret codes on every document you print that can be used to identify the printer manufacturer, printer type, and serial number. Then, they can tie that particular serial number back to the you by working with the retail stores.
The printer manufacturers did this at the reqeust of the Secret Service to stop counterfeiters. But, the potential for abuse of this are very real. For instance, if you print up some anonymous flyers that the government doesn't approve of, they could tie the documents back to you. This is no joke. Check out the EFF's site for more details about how you can help combat this alarming technology.
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Posted by Peenie Wallie on July 30, 2005 at 12:40 AM
Comments
I wonder why they didn't use this piece of info during the Rathergate incident? Perhaps it doesn't work on copies, only originals. It has been known for years that you could trace typewriters. This is just the next step, I suppose...
PS: Found you through Michelle Malkin. Nice work.
Posted by: Becky in Ohio on July 30, 2005 at 10:27 AM
It only works on SOME printers even then, the ID marks may not be transmitted if you take a bad enough copy, or a copy of a copy.
Horrible invasion of anomity by a private group, but on the upside, one that's not too hard to bypass - now that we know about it.
Posted by: blueeyes on July 30, 2005 at 07:09 PM
Posted by: Robert on July 31, 2005 at 06:50 PM