Yeah, but the dead in Christ shall rise first. If you keep riding that thing, that is the only way you'll beat me.
I prefer steel on all sides... and four wheels, and a bumper. No tatts for me, either...
Posted on 10/18/2005 6:54:07 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
Tiny Dots Show Where and When You Made Your Print
San Francisco - A research team led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently broke the code behind tiny tracking dots that some color laser printers secretly hide in every document.
The U.S. Secret Service admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters. However, the nature of the private information encoded in each document was not previously known.
"We've found that the dots from at least one line of printers encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of the printer," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen.
You can see the dots on color prints from machines made by Xerox, Canon, and other manufacturers (for a list of the printers we investigated so far, see: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/list.php). The dots are yellow, less than one millimeter in diameter, and are typically repeated over each page of a document. In order to see the pattern, you need a blue light, a magnifying glass, or a microscope (for instructions on how to see the dots, see: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/).
EFF and its partners began its project to break the printer code with the Xerox DocuColor line. Researchers Schoen, EFF intern Robert Lee, and volunteers Patrick Murphy and Joel Alwen compared dots from test pages sent in by EFF supporters, noting similarities and differences in their arrangement, and then found a simple way to read the pattern.
"So far, we've only broken the code for Xerox DocuColor printers," said Schoen. "But we believe that other models from other manufacturers include the same personally identifiable information in their tracking dots."
You can decode your own Xerox DocuColor prints using EFF's automated program at http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/index.php#program.
Xerox previously admitted that it provided these tracking dots to the government, but indicated that only the Secret Service had the ability to read the code. The Secret Service maintains that it only uses the information for criminal counterfeit investigations. However, there are no laws to prevent the government from abusing this information.
"Underground democracy movements that produce political or religious pamphlets and flyers, like the Russian samizdat of the 1980s, will always need the anonymity of simple paper documents, but this technology makes it easier for governments to find dissenters," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. "Even worse, it shows how the government and private industry make backroom deals to weaken our privacy by compromising everyday equipment like printers. The logical next question is: what other deals have been or are being made to ensure that our technology rats on us?"
EFF is still working on cracking the codes from other printers and we need the public's help. Find out how you can make your own test pages to be included in our research at http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/wp.php#testsheets.
May YOU'LL get a tatt. I plan to be raputred outta here before that. Oh, and if I am, you can have my motorcycle. The keys will be in the ignition.
Considering your name ....
In a world of compromise .... some don't!
"I know illegal things going on in the school district where my wife works and write the local paper. Some clerk can now trace who I am."
At the risk of sounding harsh, so what?
If you report a crime, and want something done about it, aren't you willing to be recognized? If you press charges, or someone comes to trial, you have to be willing to testify, and go on public record. Would you rather that you be able to make anonymous charges against the school? Where's the protection for the school in that?
And if you write to the school without a printed document, that same clerk, if motivated to do so, could identify where you bought your paper, the type of pen you used, the return address, the postmark, your DNA from the back of the stamp you licked, your fingerprints from the paper, etc, etc.
I say again: this is not that big a deal. There have been technologies available for a very long time which could be misused if someone desires. We avoid misuse by being vigilant, and enforcing the constitution.
Yeah, but the dead in Christ shall rise first. If you keep riding that thing, that is the only way you'll beat me.
I prefer steel on all sides... and four wheels, and a bumper. No tatts for me, either...
Isn't that just the same kind of technology, which would leave it open to exactly the same kind of abuse?
Just because they are using it against illegal aliens coming in now, doesn't mean that someday they couldn't use it to control people TRYING TO GET OUT.
We need to spend more time shoring up the constitutional restraints against misuse, and spend less time freaking out over technology that may or may not be misused in the future.
Wait...I think that takes us back to SCOTUS nominations...and I'm sick to death of going there! Yep, I get that Pollyannaish thing a lot. Go figure. I actually chose a name that fits me. ; )
In addition, every request for information from our web server is also logged with an IP address and time stamp. The later - called an access log - grows rapidly out-of-hand. We delete ours daily, it's just too much. Typically, websites keep access logs only long enough to summarize. The file is then discarded. Those summary records are kept for the life of the website, and contain no traceable information.
Nothing earth-shattering. It's business as usual on the Internet. Absolute anonymity is a myth.
As I see it there are only a few options here:
1. Move to a completely paperless society in which case our activity will be even more easily tracked via our money.
2. Outlaw the technology which I used for many years to make a pretty good living and return to the predigital world.
3. Allow ourselves to be very vulnerable to counterfeiting, which is not very damaging when done in small quantities...but could really sink our economy in the hands of our enemies. (Think Germany WWII)
4. Subject this information to the same safeguards required for other forms of tracking technology via privacy protection laws and search warrants, etc.
Oh...and a strict guidelines/penalties to make sure that this information is NOT available to other governments without our permission.
FR could be a giant Democrat conspiracy to collect information on us all in order to crush us! All about us will be revealed when Hillary runs for President.And we would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you meddling kids! Yarrr!
That's what I was thinking, plus avoid rebate forms and pay cash - how would they know who it was?
Unbelievable, that a conservative believes that the government should be able to track your every move.
The serial number is recorded at the time of sale - you can't avoid that. You have to identify yourself in order to obtain the warranty. To remain anonymous, you'd have to pay cash and lie about your identity. Tell them your name is Mapes (or Rather).
I said that where?
I merely said (paraphrasing) that the government can ALREADY track your every move, if they choose to. This technology changes nothing.
If I make it their first, I'll help Jesus build your mansion. "Yeah, Jesus, he really did want it to be Harley Davidson themed, like he saw on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
OIC
These are expensive color laser printers, not cheapo disposable inkjets.
Yeah, I was gonna say. New, a DocoColor 40/45 will set you back 30-40k and a Docutech 2045 will set you back 75k Used.
Just for kicks I printed a document(DocuColor 40) and looked at it under the microscope. Sure enough, small yellow dots. Too small and hard to see for me to make heads or tails of any specific patten but there is definately a pattern.
Check out the history of the then-anonymous Federalist Papers.
This is existing technology, which can of course be used for good purposes, or abused for bad purposes. I consider controlling our borders to be a good purpose. I believe that the use of cameras on public streets is an abuse of technology, but that is already happening anyway.
... someday they couldn't use it to control people TRYING TO GET OUT.
Indeed, conceivably, if our government continues to abuse technolgy, some might want to get out. But at that point, it might be better to stay and change the situation.
We need to spend more time shoring up the constitutional restraints against misuse, and spend less time freaking out over technology that may or may not be misused in the future.
Back to the subject of the thread, machine signatures on copies is not a potential misuse of technology, it is a current abuse of technology, sponsored by the FedGov. It may not be the worst misuse, but it is still misuse, and should be opposed.
ROFLMAO. Nice work!
My question is...can you tell how much time I spend here...cause it really is way, way too much. And I don't want to admit it, even to myself because if I did I would have to check myself into some kind of 12 step program immediately. ; )
This is the part that isn't clear to me.
If the paper is not used for illegal purposes...are they running around hunting this information down? Or is it something they have to get a search warrant for in order to use?
TIA.
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