Laser printers are used to spy on you

[Torsten]

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_10.php#004063

Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You

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/docuco...dex.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.

[woof woof woof]

this is scary stuff. Private information collected and getting into the hands of who knows. not good. I am sure that there are ways to apply such inventions and to put them to good use. It isthe abuse potential thats scary.

[Auxin]

They also came out with keyloggers that are directly hardwired Inside keyboards.

While I beleive its still a special order item you might not want to cyber your girlfriend at work.

The more paranoid could pick up old printers, keyboards, and mice at yard sales to be safe :ph34r:

[apothecary]

Auxin, do you think if they can hardwire a keylogger device into a keyboard they wouldn't make a modular one too? ;)

http://www.keyghost.com/

In fact, I believe Key Ghost is what the FBI used to catch those Russian hackers about a year back. Broke into their home, installed the hardware module into the back of their PC and left without a trace. Came back about a fortnight later with enough indicting evidence on the little bugger to seriously fuck up their lives.

The answer to these problems is simple. Lie down, give up, and conform. Do not think, do not judge, and most certainly do not question.

In all seriousness though if you were doing some subversive stuff and you knew there was a chance the feds would be interested you'd be pretty stupid to not be following some pretty basic security measures like:

1. Having several computers, all without harddisks, preferably including several old laptops.

2. Using RAM based operating system configuration, such as knoppix or tomsrtbt.

3. Storing all your data on a small sized USB key that is easily snapped/stomped on when the feds bust your door down.

4. Using several high end layers of encryption to protect that data (e.g. pgp encrypted archive inside of encrypted loopback filesystem inside of steganography encrypted filesystem).

Using nonstandard hardware is great. I have for example an old Silicon Graphics box, some old Sun Microsystems computers, and some old Compaq laptops running various obscure (but highly secure) operating systems which would be quite difficult to get any data out of either by keylogging or simply busting my door down and taking the boxes.

[blog]

They are also doing this dot thing with Films that are being shown at cinemas.

I first noticed it in a movie called "Big Fish" . For maybe 5 frames you see an arrangement of dots. The dots likely ID the film print and can tell a distributor to which chain of cinemas that print of the film was sent to, or maybe it could be even more specific, like what city, though making a different print for each cinema seems unlikely.

When distributors see their movies on the internet or pirate copies being sold on DVD, they can tell where the film was pirated, and perhaps extra security including illumination of the cinema by near infra red lights in those areas where the film was pirated.

I don't see any films at the cinema any more, but the dot thing is probably common place now.

[Benzito]

Film prints are sent around from cinema, to cinema, though.

My projectionist friend used to regularly complain about the fact that Penrith Hoyts would always get second hand prints. Or, prints that had been used by another cinema already.

They are obviously, more scratched and faded, from use.

And, places like Dendy, etc, don't get a film until long after the majors have had it normally.

So, I don't know if they could pin-point WHERE a movie was pirated?

[blog]

Yeah I knew that in most cases Independents never bought new prints, but that would also mean they never got the prints first so a person with a camcorder at their cinema shouldn't be a problem as the film would no longer be new so there would be no demand for a pirate copy, so the finger pointing would be at the original purchaser.

In the film I saw (Big Fish) I first KNEW I saw something strange with the dots when Ewan McGregor was talking to Helena Bonham Carter at her door. This is quite late into the film, and it jolted my subconscious into remembering that I had seen these coloured dots at other stages in the film also, though I could not identity where.

Just incase anyone were to think I'm confusing the reel change circle that appears in right hand top corner of the print, I'm not. These dots were large and coloured, in the middle of the frame and formed a pattern. I can't be sure what it means but it's suspicious.

[occidentalis]

List of Printers Which Do or Don't Print Tracking Dots

http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/list.php

[Torsten]

List of Printers Which Do or Don't Print Tracking Dots

http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/list.php

is that for those who are too lazy to read the whole article ?

[ShiningPlain]

the new world order is right around the corner now. who will run, and who will fight?

[Andy the Great Something]

Certainly seems that global monitoring/controll is on the rise, what with phonecall monitoring software that keys in on certain words and phrases you may speak and web crawlers spying the net, scanning your emails , noting what you look at, buy and search for, global spy satellites that supposedly can see right through your roof or the license plate or your car, hell, can't even rent a car without a damn credit card now adays it seems. Don't even get me started with the news outlets, or how they force feed us with fear and violence that program the masses make them more willing to follow the agenda. Duck and cover my friends, duck and cover.

Do I sound paranoid?

Speak clearly into the microphone please.

[apothecary]

Certainly seems that global monitoring/controll is on the rise, what with phonecall monitoring software that keys in on certain words and phrases you may speak

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON has been around since WW2

and web crawlers spying the net, scanning your emails , noting what you look at, buy and search for,

http://www.google.com does what you describe, I bet you use it though.

global spy satellites that supposedly can see right through your roof or the license plate or your car,

Camp Lejeune Marince Corps base -- look at all the black helicopters! If the feds can do it, why can't you? That image was pulled off google maps in a The Register competition.

hell, can't even rent a car without a damn credit card now adays it seems.

I'm pretty young so I don't know car rental policy too far back, but could you ever rent a car without a credit card?

Don't even get me started with the news outlets, or how they force feed us with fear and violence that program the masses make them more willing to follow the agenda.

Nobody is forcing you to watch it. In fact, you should be in control of your mind enough to watch it, discern reality from bullshit and then help sway the opinions of those around you with rational, informed thoughts.

Duck and cover my friends, duck and cover.

That pretty much sums it up. People have been monitoring you, tracking you, watching you, for many many years now, for just about as long as that mantra has been around. I imagine even the monitoring technique described in the original article posted by T has been around for a fair while.

You aren't discovering something new, it's not like this has never happened before, but the question (which is far more important) is, what are you gonna do about it?

[Andy the Great Something]

Nobody is forcing you to watch it. In fact, you should be in control of your mind enough to watch it, discern reality from bullshit and then help sway the opinions of those around you with rational, informed thoughts.

uhm.................... I like pizza. Do you like pizza?

You aren't discovering something new, it's not like this has never happened before

Honestly, I didn't think I was 'discovering' anything, I thought I was just putting things in perspective.

And what am I gonna do about it you ask? Or rather, what I do about it? I try to be as transparent as possible. :D

[occidentalis]

is that for those who are too lazy to read the whole article ?

Yep

Such as myself ;)

[Rev]

First you have to rediscover whats real

do you really like what you think you like?

Are your conclusions your own? or have you been persuaded to accept somebody elses?

Do you sacrifice liberty for security? freedom for convenience?

As said use older second hand stuff, ride a bike, buy cheap cars, pay in cash instead

why pander to the consumerist agenda? reject the egotistical image game and drop off the radar

no one out there cares about your happiness only your momentary gratification and the bill they will give you at the end

its a game where the object for the global tyrany is to make you completley indebted and dependent on their products, the main one of which is money itself.

if you dont need them to survive then youve already won

[waterdragon]

great post rev, agree with all of that.

just on the i.d feature of printers, it's not really a revelation. a npws investigation mentioned (about two years back) that some data that a whistleblower presented came from his own printer, they had ways to discern such things but were a little vague on details.