• Inkjet Printer Watermarking

    From warmfuzzy@700:100/0 to All on Sat May 19 02:30:02 2018
    When buying a new Inkjet printer cartridge some printers leave watermarks (or barely visible grids of dots that reveal the serial number. The codes that represent serial numbers can be used to trace back where a printed photograph comes from. This can be used to localize perverted photography producers and those who are testing out the copying of paper money. So, though I neither produce illegal porn or copy dollar bills, I make a point of not registering my printer for that $20 refund. If I want to produce a counter-cultural zine or something like that the government has no business in tracking down activist flyers, letters to the editor, or other such legal though controversial printed media. The dots become more visible when using a lot of ink, printing in the "photo" setting. This technology has been reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) several years back.

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  • From xqtr@700:100/13 to warmfuzzy on Sat May 19 12:58:54 2018
    When buying a new Inkjet printer cartridge some printers leave
    watermarks (or barely visible grids of dots that reveal the serial
    number. The codes that represent serial numbers can be used to trace

    i think also laser printers have a similar technology. Also, photocopy machines, have internal hard drives, that keep backup of all documents that the machine has printed.

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  • From NuSkooler@700:100/9 to xqtr on Sat May 19 09:12:16 2018
    i think also laser printers have a similar technology. Also, photocopy machines, have internal hard drives, that keep backup of all documents that the machine has printed.

    Yup, I've read of these used in all sorts of cases -- for good and bad. These are the same type of "backdoors" that governments have managed to squeeze into everything as now wanting ways around crypto. They've gotten away with it I think partially because something like a photocopier a lot of people just do the usual brain-dead way of thinking: "Well, that won't effect me!", but crypto
    at least a good portion of people are resisting...

    ...of course, these types of backdoors at the hardware level are near impossible to get around. I know I certainly cannot make my own Intel/AMD CPU replacements :D





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  • From xqtr@700:100/13 to NuSkooler on Sat May 19 21:42:25 2018
    ...of course, these types of backdoors at the hardware level are near impossible to get around. I know I certainly cannot make my own
    Intel/AMD CPU replacements :D

    If you are really trying to hide something, or be "undetected", now days, i think the only way, is to go "back"... to old school stuff. Anything that is connected to the Net and has a processor is a "vulnerability"... so, back
    to typewriters, 80s home computers, floppy disks(?) etc. :)

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@700:100/20 to warmfuzzy on Mon May 21 06:41:42 2018
    Re: Inkjet Printer Watermarking
    By: warmfuzzy to All on Sat May 19 2018 02:30 am

    When buying a new Inkjet printer cartridge some printers leave watermarks (or barely visible grids of dots that reveal the serial number.

    I wonder when they started. The HP Deskjet 500 is built like a tank and they still make rollers and ink for it; they might be the printer of choice for people who don't want their pages tracked.

    Have you heard the new printing trend? HP InstantInk. You pay a monthly charge, by the page, and HP sends you ink at regular intervals based your printer reporting on usage and ink levels to HP.

    What could possibly go wrong?

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