Documents Tracked by US Government Through Laser Printer Technology

Warpy · Nov 24, 2004, 12:27 AM

A senior research fellow at US printer Xerox admits that his company's laser printers are equipped with a special technology that allows the US government to track documents back to the original machine it came out of.

The technology prints tiny dots between the letter of a document and can only be seen with the aid of a blue LED light and a magnifying glass. The technology acts as a "license plate" for the printers. Other companies use similar technologies.

While the US government insists it only tracks documents in illegal situations like counterfeiting, civil liberty advocates are concerned. They note laws may have been broken when it comes to privacy rights of citizens.

Source

PoopyTheJ · Nov 24, 2004, 04:41 AM

We've had this for jeez, 5 yrs now at kinkos, it's pretty funny if you look at a color print unber a magnifying glass you can see the spots, yellow usually so it doesn't interfere with the image quality. Yeah it's most definitely a sorta shady thing as they don't talk about it, but.... what are you going to do?

studbagel9 · Nov 24, 2004, 06:24 AM

yay big brother!

Nov 24, 2004, 12:27 AM	#1
Warpy DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: USA Posts: 2,761 Rep Power: 0	Documents Tracked by US Government Through Laser Printer Technology A senior research fellow at US printer Xerox admits that his company's laser printers are equipped with a special technology that allows the US government to track documents back to the original machine it came out of. The technology prints tiny dots between the letter of a document and can only be seen with the aid of a blue LED light and a magnifying glass. The technology acts as a "license plate" for the printers. Other companies use similar technologies. While the US government insists it only tracks documents in illegal situations like counterfeiting, civil liberty advocates are concerned. They note laws may have been broken when it comes to privacy rights of citizens. Source __________________ The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Nov 24, 2004, 04:41 AM	#2
PoopyTheJ DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Ohio Posts: 1,588 Rep Power: 66	We've had this for jeez, 5 yrs now at kinkos, it's pretty funny if you look at a color print unber a magnifying glass you can see the spots, yellow usually so it doesn't interfere with the image quality. Yeah it's most definitely a sorta shady thing as they don't talk about it, but.... what are you going to do? __________________ [COLOR=Blue]“Alright boys, let’s start her up and see why she doesn’t work.” - John Fritz "I aim to misbehave" Malcolm Reynolds ATI Catalyst Beta Tester[/COLOR]

Nov 24, 2004, 06:24 AM	#3
studbagel9 Rolling the Hard Six Join Date: May 2003 Location: Lock Haven, PA Posts: 767 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	yay big brother! __________________