Boing-boing, referencing an EFF report and a PC World article, reports that some major color laser printers include a "fingerprint" that can be used to tie a printout back to the specific printer that produced it. Apparently designed as a counter-counterfeiting mechanism, the technology has wider and relatively unregulated uses open to it.
The EFF page on the issue includes links to research reports and tips on testing your own printer. And some (justifiably) paranoid thoughts as well:
The ACLU recently issued a report revealing that the FBI has amassed more than 1,100 pages of documents on the organization since 2001, as well as documents concerning other non-violent groups, including Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice. In the current political climate, it's not hard to imagine the government using the ability to determine who may have printed what document for purposes other than identifying counterfeiters. Your freedom to speak anonymously is in danger.
Yet there are no laws to stop the Secret Service -- or for that matter, any other governmental agency or private company -- from using printer codes to secretly trace the origin of non-currency documents. We're unaware of any printer manufacturer that has a privacy policy that would protect you, and no law regulates what people can do with the information once it's turned over. And that doesn't even reach the issue of how such a privacy-invasive tool could be developed and implemented in printers without the public becoming aware of it in the first place.
[via Boing Boing]
Posted by johndanseven at July 25, 2005 03:24 PM