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11/22/2004 Archived Entry: "Government Uses Color Laser Printer Technology to Track Documents"

Posted by steve @ 11:14 PM EST [Link]

GOVERNMENT CAN TRACK YOUR COLOR LASER PRINTING: Let that be a lesson to you, don't use your color laser printer to counterfeit money.

Next time you make a printout from your color laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and examine it closely with a magnifying glass. You might be able to see the small, scattered yellow dots printer there that could be used to trace the document back to you.

According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters.

Peter Crean, a senior research fellow at Xerox, says his company's laser printers, copiers and multifunction workstations, such as its WorkCentre Pro series, put the "serial number of each machine coded in little yellow dots" in every printout. The millimeter-sized dots appear about every inch on a page, nestled within the printed words and margins.

"It's a trail back to you, like a license plate," Crean says.

So, if you're a fan of stopping potential government intrusion into your privacy -- and you don't counterfeit -- stay away from companies like Xerox and Canon and do not register your printer with the company. Oh, and make sure to use a firewall that checks outbound connections since companies like Lexmark are installing spyware to report back on your printing.

Ain't life grand in the technological age?

Read on.