Is Your Printer Spying on You? - Comments Page 1

MS Word and perhaps other software writing apps leave *footprints* of a kind as well i'm told.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sure, just open a Word file with Notepad and you'll see that the author's name is hiding in the gobbledygook. Microsoft has added a feature to Word that will remove personal information from your document when you save it:

1. Click on Tools / Options
2. Click the Security tab
3. Under Privacy Options, select the box next to "Remove personal information from the file on save"

I don't like things done behind my back or put on my computer without my knowlage. I hated that Lexmark printer I bought a few years ago. It was always trying to connect to the internet and I blocked it with my firewall. Ended up giving it to a friend. Now I have a HP laser printer and love it! But after reading this column, I just won't print any counterfeit bills or send out that occasional ransome note! //bob

As it happens those code marks were how the police identified the BTK serial killer.Both the Defense Dept and the FBI have used them numerous times in identifying would be spies and others who illegally copy classified documents.
It involves a lot more than counterfeit money

Got a Epson Stylus in which I've had to cripple a few of the modules in the drivers for the printer because they was always phoning home. Printer works just fine without them.

CSI had just such a show not too long ago, where a document was identified by the machine it was copied on. That information found in the document proved that a individual at a Zoo was involved in a killing.
They didn't mention if it was a color printer..... and I got the impression is was only a black & white printer. I guess they knew about the serial number & date thing and applied "poetic license".
How about that!

It's true. I have a Magicolor 2300w from minolta and IF you print in color, tiny dot patterns can be seen when viewed under blue light (UV doesn't work). The yellow toner isn't obvious and transmits almost as brightly as the paper itself in white light, but in blue light its as visually heavy as a brick and is hard to miss if you look close. I used a microscope for a sample image, but you can see them with your eyes if you don't have bad vision.

To me this is funny because I have been using "invisible" writing for years in email and when it is printed on paper you still cannot read it unless you change the print colors before you print. It is still there on the paper in a gray tone so light (254), your eyes cannot see it! Can't put an example here though.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Cool, send me an example and I'll link it in here.

The problem with this technology, like anything else, is that the people who its designed to catch will ultimately figure out workarounds to avoid leaving the fingerprint. So the rest of us will find ourselves victims of unauthorized government intrusion while the bad guys do not.

I agree, the bad guys simply won't register or will register it under a false identity. It's like them making all .us domain owners show all of their personal information to the internet world.
All it's doing is taking away the ability for the good guys, who do follow the rules, to protect their own identity. It's awful.

This site linked in the "Bad Kitty" section above, http://www.aunty-spam.com/if-you-have-a-lexmark-printer, is a linkfarm (with popup ads that can defeat some popup blockers, too). There is no real information there, just a bunch of links to googlesyndication ads. This particular linkfarm interface has become fairly standard (tho is most often seen on squatted domains) and is clearly good enough to fool some people who ought to know better ;)

I am involved in a situation at work where I suspect that a document was produced by someone other than the person who is claiming to have produced it. I have documents that I know were printed on the suspected authors printer/ fax machine, a black and white printer. I am not very technically skilled, but I wonder if anyone can tell me about a service where I could sent these documents to be compared?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sounds like FBI-type stuff. I don't know of any service like that, but others here can chime in...

Bob,
Do any black & white laser printers embed codes.
Joe