Is Your Printer Spying On You?

An Internet civil rights body has discovered that many printers add an arrangement of yellow dots to each page printed that can allow the authorities to identify the time and date of printing and serial number of the device.

‘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 Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

PCPro Printers leak privacy info on every page

Researchers hired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) say they were able to break a code hidden in tiny tracking dots that some colour laser printers secrete in every document they print.

The U.S. Secret Service admits it struck a deal with some laser printer manufacturers to add tracking information to the printed matter. The spooks say it’s a means of identifying counterfeiters.

the Inquirer Is Your Printer Spying On You?