
Most Printers Secretly Add Their Serial # to Everything They Print - DannyDover
http://www.eff.org/wp/investigating-machine-identification-code-technology-color-laser-printers
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imajes
Note: As of October 13th, 2005, some information in this paper may be out of
date. Please visit <http://eff.org/issues/printers> for the most up-to-date
information on this project

(in other words, be more careful with your titles relating to papers that are
REALLY out of date)

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jws
This only applies to color laser printers and color copiers. Your inkjet
printer is just fine.

The wikipedia article on laser printers links to a nice sample on a 1cm
ruler...
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Printer_Stenography_Illust...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Printer_Stenography_Illustration.png)

The part of this that I find most interesting is that these have been known
since the 90s and in 2005 there was a flurry of interest as some of the
schemes were decoded, but I have never seen an authoritative reason why they
are there. Does some entity in the US government require them? By what legal
mechanism? Are the printer manufacturers trying to avoid liability for
manufacturing counterfeiting equipment?

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slackenerny
Most qulity copiers won't xero you a banknote bill:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation>

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KWD
Sensationalistic and bad title for this submission. It's not 'most printers',
it's color laser printers. And that's not even going into it being a 4 year
old article.

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rglovejoy
Even if the Secret Service can find the manufacturer and serial number info in
a document, how can they match this information with the end user if he/she
does not turn in a warranty card?

I can think of a couple of scenarios:

1) During the driver installation process, the serial number and the user info
stored on the system is (edit: could be) sent to the manufacturer. This might
be defeated by using an open OS and drivers. The user could also use the
printer with a system that is never connected to the Net.

2) The Secret Service would be able to track the printer down to the store
where it was purchased. The retailer would be able to supply credit/debit
receipts, but what if the buyer pays for the printer with cash? The Secret
Service would have to rely on the store's video surveillance system (who knows
how long they keep these records?) or on eyewitness descriptions from the
store clerks and cashiers (which may not be too reliable).

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gojomo
Even without the ability to trace to an exact purchaser, to be able to
correlate multiple documents to the same person, or use the printer as
corroborating evidence after finding a suspect by other means, would be very
valuable to law enforcement.

And unless the printer is _only_ used for disfavored purposes, its other
output is in circulation. Who's to say there's not a ad hoc registry
maintained by paper samples culled from filed forms or even trash dumps and
recycling bins. ("That serial number was never registered but it was sold from
a retail store in Cleveland in 2002 and its printouts were seen in recycling
flows in Maryland in 2006.")

~~~
eli
Uh, I think you're giving the government's tracking and cataloging abilities
_way_ too much credit. They have trouble keeping track of a list of
terrorists.

It think it's for confirming that a particular printer made a particular note
(and determining how many different printers are involved in counterfeiting).
Nothing more.

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DannyDover
With regards to the constructive criticism about the date of the article,
thank you and I will keep that in mind next time.

I submitted this article because I genuinely thought it was interesting and
wanted to share it with like minded tech savvy people. (My real life friends
wouldn't really care about this :-p)

I chose to submit this page rather than the newer version (
<http://eff.org/issues/printers> ) because I found the image of the dots on
this webpage very interesting. I figured if people were interested they could
click the "For up-to-date" information link. I will save everyone a click next
time.

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tome
Do these "watermarks" survive a photocopying?

If not: print out one copy and photocopy from it as many as you need before
destroying the original.

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dan_the_welder
Wait, you mean that my yellow ink consumption is artificially high because of
some serial numbering scheme secretly put on my printer?

Class action lawsuit anyone?

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quizbiz
this should not be news

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GeneralMaximus
Interesting article. I'm glad that the EFF tries to reasonably present its
arguments and provides not only supporting evidence, but also does some work
towards decrypting the information added to laser printouts.

Unlike, um, _some people_.

