Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You!

[Zim Hosein]

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/docucolor/index.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.

Contact:

Seth Schoen
Staff Technologist
Electronic Frontier Foundation
seth@eff.org

Posted at 12:30 AM

Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You

Time to put on my tinfoil hat! :Q

 

[dainthomas]

Typewriter FTW.

 

[JasonSix78]

Originally posted by: dainthomas
Typewriter FTW.

:laugh: :beer:

-Jason

 

[MattCo]

With printers as cheap as they are now, just go buy a bunch and destroy them after each printing run.

-MC

 

[Ronin]

E
M
A
I
L

 

[spidey07]

Holy smokes if thats true.

-edit- although my BS meter is reading medium.

 

[Blieb]

Yeah that's amazing.

 

[tm37]

Wow!

Don't print $20's and you should be OK

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: spidey07
Holy smokes if thats true.

-edit- although my BS meter is reading medium.

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a fair amount of truth to it, HP color laser printers (4600, 5500 and later at least) do the same thing (include yellow colored "anti-counterfeit" measures on every page). I used to support HP printers & they freely admit that the pages are ID'd as having been printed on a HP color laser. They didn't go so far as to say that date, time, & printer serial number were encoded but that's not surprising.

The easiest way to see them is to go into the service menu & disable cartridge checking. Swap the black cartridge into the yellow position & the codes will be plain as day.

Viper GTS

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: tm37
Wow!

Don't print $20's and you should be OK

Or just print it with a printer that can't be traced to you.

Like buying it at a yard sale, with a hat and sunglasses on with a body suit in a car you "borrowed"

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
Topic Title: Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You!
Topic Summary: Tiny Dots Show Where and When You Made Your Print.

Old old news. I showed this back a couple of years ago.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS

Originally posted by: spidey07
Holy smokes if thats true.

-edit- although my BS meter is reading medium.

It wouldn't surprise me if there is a fair amount of truth to it, HP color laser printers (4600, 5500 and later at least) do the same thing (include yellow colored "anti-counterfeit" measures on every page). I used to support HP printers & they freely admit that the pages are ID'd as having been printed on a HP color laser. They didn't go so far as to say that date, time, & printer serial number were encoded but that's not surprising.

The easiest way to see them is to go into the service menu & disable cartridge checking. Swap the black cartridge into the yellow position & the codes will be plain as day.

Viper GTS

Yeah, I can see that. But the serial number means it can be traced to a person. spooky.

Although secret service doesn't mess around when it comes to counterfitting I'm sure. That's one of those "destroy the country" type crimes they frown upon.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
Topic Title: Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You!
Topic Summary: Tiny Dots Show Where and When You Made Your Print.

Old old news. I showed this back a couple of years ago.

Except now they've broken the code & know what is included.

Viper GTS

 

[mryellow2]

I work in a print shop with a couple of digital copiers and it is true. The copiers lay down a series of very small yellow dots. According to the Xerox technician they show up very well under a certain spectrum of light. Most color copiers these days will not copy currency. Something about image recognition etc.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: MattCo
With printers as cheap as they are now, just go buy a bunch and destroy them after each printing run.

-MC

That would only help them to triangulate who the owner is.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: MattCo
With printers as cheap as they are now, just go buy a bunch and destroy them after each printing run.

-MC

That would only help them to triangulate who the owner is.

And the printers that do this are not disposable inkjets - They're high priced color lasers.

Though I would imagine HP's lower level color lasers (2500/3500 series) do the same thing, & they're much more of a personal level printer ($500 instead of $1500+).

Viper GTS

 

[TitanDiddly]

BAN PAPER

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: dainthomas
Typewriter FTW.

They have that on type writers too.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: tm37
Wow!

Don't print $20's and you should be OK

Or just print it with a printer that can't be traced to you.

Like buying it at a yard sale, with a hat and sunglasses on with a body suit in a car you "borrowed"

Cool, so life continues as normal for me then

 

[NuclearNed]

The only way I can see that a serial number can be traced to a person is if you send in the warranty cards.

 

[Rubycon]

Real outlaws know how to modify the printer firmware so it paints funny things instead of identification.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed
The only way I can see that a serial number can be traced to a person is if you send in the warranty cards.

credit card or any electronic payment.

Cash would just mean they pull the tapes from the store at the moment of purchase.

 

[bigrash]

i gotta tell my sister to stop printing geography homework. god knows what bush could do with that info

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: NuclearNed
The only way I can see that a serial number can be traced to a person is if you send in the warranty cards.

credit card or any electronic payment.

Cash would just mean they pull the tapes from the store at the moment of purchase.

Just for the sake of argument, do stores really enter the serial number from an electronic device at the point of sale? I don't think the UPC has anything to do with the serial #, does it?

The reason I ask is because if they don't enter the serial # at the time of purchase, I don't see how it can be linked to your credit card. It seems like the govt might be able to track the printer to a particular store, but thats where the trail would end unless the customer turns in the warranty cards.

 

[laurenlex]

<furiously wrapping Canon Pixma with tin foil>