Big brother in your lazer printer?

[RvW]

Government Tracks Laser Printed Documents

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 printed 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" Crean says.


My question is, how does big brother know it's your printer?

[newbeebob]

If you pay by credit card, they will have your info attached to the serial #. Or if you register the product. I personally don't believe this would happen, but could understand if needed to catch counterfeiters or terrorists.

Personally I never register any product unless, it is required to make it run, and I can't find a way around it

[Cool Texan]

Want to get freaked out? If it was secret....would you be reading about it? What about the stuff you DONT read about??? :grin: