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Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You
EFF ^ | 17 Oct 05 | Seth Schoen

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: anonymousspeech; cnim; colorprinters; counterfeiting; eff; privacy; secretservice
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To: Quick1
If you are not doing anything illegal, this should not bother you.
As well as anyone trying to print a dissenting newspaper during the next Clinton administration. Why are you so willing to give up your freedoms?

While I abhore this, I really don't anticipate publishing any clandestine stuff. If I print it, everyone will know that I did it.

121 posted on 10/18/2005 1:45:02 PM PDT by SCALEMAN (Pelosi is as empty as an Amish Phone Directory)
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon

I'll say it again:

If this technology did not exist, and you printed something on which you wished to remain anonymous, there are other technologies/techniques whereby others could figure out the attribution.


122 posted on 10/18/2005 2:16:41 PM PDT by 2nsdammit
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To: Sensei Ern
If I make it their first, I'll help Jesus build your mansion.

I'll be happy with a little cabin in the woods... wouldn't mind having a Porsche Speedster, or an E-type Jag, in the driveway, though...

123 posted on 10/18/2005 2:18:22 PM PDT by pageonetoo (You'll spot their posts soon enough!)
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To: antiRepublicrat

Minor detail. Have you looked around lately? How many times a day do you have you photo taken? Can you drive down the street without the gov knowing your route? Cell phone tracking, photo tracking, store security tracking...nothing new here...move along.


124 posted on 10/18/2005 2:22:08 PM PDT by devane617
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To: pollyannaish

Why would they run around hunting this down?

After all, if they wanted to (and could get a warrant to)dust every letter sent through the mail for fingerprints, they could do that. If they wanted to collect DNA off every licked stamp or envelope, they could do that. If they wanted to record every cell phone call you make, they could do that.

Why would they do any of those things? There aren't enough agents in the system NOW to track the bad guys we DO know about.


125 posted on 10/18/2005 2:28:36 PM PDT by 2nsdammit
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To: 2nsdammit

See, that's where this whole freaking out over this gets really murky to me.

I used a Doc12 daily in a small business for several years. It's not like we sent weekly reports to the government. Sheesh.

But if someone had used our equipment to do something illegal...you know they would have ended up on our doorstep one way or another. There are a thousand ways to trace it back...it's just that this allows that process to be a lot more time-efficient and therefore more effective. Big deal

I just think the hysteria over this is really....misplaced. But perhaps I'm missing something.


126 posted on 10/18/2005 2:33:18 PM PDT by pollyannaish
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To: pollyannaish

"I just think the hysteria over this is really....misplaced. But perhaps I'm missing something."

I concur.


127 posted on 10/18/2005 2:38:01 PM PDT by 2nsdammit
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To: pollyannaish

Couldn't tell ya. But if I could, would you really want to know? ;-)


128 posted on 10/18/2005 4:31:34 PM PDT by John Robinson
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To: John Robinson

Uhm...no.

Thanks for the hard work so the rest of us can...goof off.


129 posted on 10/18/2005 5:55:15 PM PDT by pollyannaish
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To: devane617
Minor detail. Have you looked around lately? How many times a day do you have you photo taken?

Probably far more than others given the environment I work in. I have card-in twice just to get to work, and pass quite a few cameras. But I chose that.

This is bad mainly because of the danger to free, anonymous speech.

130 posted on 10/19/2005 5:29:03 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat

Free enterprise is doing what the Gov could not and that is tracking our mevements. The town I live in has installed high resolution cameras on each traffic light. You can litterally track a driver/car anywhere in the city. You know each stop and it's duration. But, the sheeple don't care.


131 posted on 10/19/2005 6:09:20 AM PDT by devane617
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To: antiRepublicrat

Very interesting... glad to have read this, even though I don’t plan to counterfeit anything soon.


132 posted on 03/07/2008 12:34:22 PM PST by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: antiRepublicrat

It looks like the old punch card from an old system 3 computer.


133 posted on 03/07/2008 12:37:06 PM PST by armymarinemom (My sons freed Iraqi and Afghan Honor Roll students.)
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