Chaos Magnet

Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has broken the code that printer companies have put in, causing printers to include a tiny invisible pattern that indicates when the document was printed and the serial number of the printer that printed it. Ostensibly to foil (or at least track) counterfeiters, this deal is troubling for several reasons, perhaps put best by EFF Seniorspace Staff Attorney Lee Tien:

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. 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?

Supposedly, the codes are only able to be read by the Secret Service, but the EFF has an automated program that lets you to code your own documents.

Technorati tags: privacy | government | EFF | printers | secret codes

Technorati tags: privacy | government | EFF | printers | color printers | secret codes |

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