Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You!

[Glavinsolo]

This is true, actually they made big news about it when the FBI made the deal with color laser manufacturers. Although the public only knew that the marks would help the FBI with tracking down counterfeiters not so much what was encoded.

And yes if the serial number is encoded on each page printed then they have good chances of finding you.

Example.

Southeast retailers get printers from HP 500000xxxx. Suzie at Best Buy in Florida scanned your serial number in to her computer when she sold you the printer. I contact southeast dealerships to find my serial number and hopefully you used your credit card.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: 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?

I just assumed that the serial number was part of a stores inventory/sales system.

Manufacturer knows where said serial number was shipped. store receives it and enters into system.

Then again, I've never done any retail stuff so I'm assuming here.

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: 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?

I just assumed that the serial number was part of a stores inventory/sales system.

Manufacturer knows where said serial number was shipped. store receives it and enters into system.

Then again, I've never done any retail stuff so I'm assuming here.

I edited some more into my post above - please read and correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[mobobuff]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: 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?

I just assumed that the serial number was part of a stores inventory/sales system.

Manufacturer knows where said serial number was shipped. store receives it and enters into system.

Then again, I've never done any retail stuff so I'm assuming here.

I don't think the serial number and UPC correlate in any way, and I don't know why the store would keep track of anything other than the UPC. But I don't have any retail experience either.

 

[AnMig]

In the same privacy topic.

I remember attending a child abuse conference with law enforcement. They used a program that can scan digital pictures which shows the date, time, serial number,type of camera etc.

They use this to track down child pronography.

I am not sure how to clear that information but I am sure there are ways.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: C6FT7
Real outlaws know how to modify the printer firmware so it paints funny things instead of identification.

Not all of them.

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: mobobuff

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: 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?

I just assumed that the serial number was part of a stores inventory/sales system.

Manufacturer knows where said serial number was shipped. store receives it and enters into system.

Then again, I've never done any retail stuff so I'm assuming here.

I don't think the serial number and UPC correlate in any way, and I don't know why the store would keep track of anything other than the UPC. But I don't have any retail experience either.

Back in college I sold electronics at Sears, and all we entered was either the UPC or a stock number. That was about 10 years ago, so maybe things have changed???

 

[mobobuff]

Originally posted by: AnMig
In the same privacy topic.

I remember attending a child abuse conference with law enforcement. They used a program that can scan digital pictures which shows the date, time, serial number,type of camera etc.

They use this to track down child pronography.

I am not sure how to clear that information but I am sure there are ways.

That's EXIF data. You can view it yourself with Windows XP. Just right click on the image, select Properties and choose the Summary tab in Advanced view. Not all images have EXIF data, but I assume there are other bits of info in image headers before the actual JPEG compression.

Here's an example

 

[mobobuff]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: mobobuff

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: 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?

I just assumed that the serial number was part of a stores inventory/sales system.

Manufacturer knows where said serial number was shipped. store receives it and enters into system.

Then again, I've never done any retail stuff so I'm assuming here.

I don't think the serial number and UPC correlate in any way, and I don't know why the store would keep track of anything other than the UPC. But I don't have any retail experience either.

Back in college I sold electronics at Sears, and all we entered was either the UPC or a stock number. That was about 10 years ago, so maybe things have changed???

Yeah, and a manufacturer serial number wouldn't help the store out any for stocking and inventory purposes, so I don't see why they'd bother with it. Still, the government could narrow down their search by knowing the serial number.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: AnMig
In the same privacy topic.

I remember attending a child abuse conference with law enforcement. They used a program that can scan digital pictures which shows the date, time, serial number,type of camera etc.

They use this to track down child pronography.

I am not sure how to clear that information but I am sure there are ways.

are they just reading the EXIF data? cause well anyone can do that, you just need to right click on an image and goto properties - summery- advanced

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: tm37
Wow!

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

Whew....thanks God for the $100 bill

 

[40Hands]

use a blue LED and you will see them pretty easily. We have a color Xerox copier and I see tiny light yellow dots...

 

[AStar617]

Originally posted by: dainthomas
Typewriter FTW.

Clearly, you never saw the Brady Bunch episode where the family traces a letter from Jan's "secret admirer" to Alice's typewriter due to a crooked letter.

And for the record, the existance of this has been no secret for at least a year now, only the public decoding is news. Didn't read the rest of the thread so sorry if this has already been stated.

 

[DrPizza]

Okay, so if you don't send in the warranty card, they don't know that you purchased the printer.
BUT, they will still know, from the serial number, where the printer was purchased.

Now, suppose you purchased it at Staples. And that store sold 100 printers. But the other 99 people from that Staples sent in their warranty cards. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize "hey, we accounted for 99 out of 100, who purchased the 100th printer?."
If you paid with cash, they still may not make the connection.
BUT, if you paid with C.C., etc., then you're toast.

Ahhhh, but you were smart, and paid with cash Wait, did you use your Staples rewards program? Oh no!

Now, if you're really good, you travel across the country and purchase a printer at a garage sale.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Okay, so if you don't send in the warranty card, they don't know that you purchased the printer.
BUT, they will still know, from the serial number, where the printer was purchased.

Now, suppose you purchased it at Staples. And that store sold 100 printers. But the other 99 people from that Staples sent in their warranty cards. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize "hey, we accounted for 99 out of 100, who purchased the 100th printer?."
If you paid with cash, they still may not make the connection.
BUT, if you paid with C.C., etc., then you're toast.

Ahhhh, but you were smart, and paid with cash Wait, did you use your Staples rewards program? Oh no!

Now, if you're really good, you travel across the country and purchase a printer at a garage sale.

Pizza:

You have $1500 in paypal waiting for you.
Now ship me the color laser printer that you purchased from Staples.
I need to print up some $20 and $100s to cover the cost.

 

[Rubycon]

LOL counterfeiters don't use printers to roll off bens.

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: mobobuff

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: 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?

I just assumed that the serial number was part of a stores inventory/sales system.

Manufacturer knows where said serial number was shipped. store receives it and enters into system.

Then again, I've never done any retail stuff so I'm assuming here.

I don't think the serial number and UPC correlate in any way, and I don't know why the store would keep track of anything other than the UPC. But I don't have any retail experience either.

I believe with most higher priced electronics, part of it is exposed where the bar code printed by the manufacturer is correlated with the serial number. When I bought a video card retail, the UPC showing had the S/N printed right above it.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: C6FT7
LOL counterfeiters don't use printers to roll off bens.

heh, true. But think about it.

It sure would quell any assinine attempts rather quickly. this is one area I've always followed - currency.

Its really rather amazing the amout of technology that goes into the production of money, no matter what country.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Okay, so if you don't send in the warranty card, they don't know that you purchased the printer.
BUT, they will still know, from the serial number, where the printer was purchased.

Now, suppose you purchased it at Staples. And that store sold 100 printers. But the other 99 people from that Staples sent in their warranty cards. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize "hey, we accounted for 99 out of 100, who purchased the 100th printer?."
If you paid with cash, they still may not make the connection.
BUT, if you paid with C.C., etc., then you're toast.

Ahhhh, but you were smart, and paid with cash Wait, did you use your Staples rewards program? Oh no!

Now, if you're really good, you travel across the country and purchase a printer at a garage sale.

Well the thing is we need real information from DBAs in the Electronics Industry to know what role the serial number plays in the purchase.

I can't believe AT can't answer this.