Xerocracy can be tracked by government

[CAcyclist]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/19/MNG7PFAM3F1.DTL&hw=xerox+dots&sn=001&sc=1000

Washington -- It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it isn't. The pages coming out of your color printer may contain hidden information that could be used to track you down if you ever cross the U.S. government.

[Tab]

1. This is nothing new

People are just finding out about it now because EFF actually figured out what the code was.

The government started doing this back in the late 80s or early 90s. Prior to that, typewriters were common and each had a distinctive "fingerprint" - maybe not DNA-level, but enough that you could prove a letter came from a particular typewriter.

Laser printers changed all that, and so the government - in part for crime-solving reasons - started quietly getting manufacturers to get some kind of identity in the printers. It was known in the tech industry that certain printers had this info.

With the advent of color printers it ramped up, because now any idiot with a home computer could print money. So not only did all the low-end printers start getting this, and color copiers, but they started also making chips that will not allow you to copy money properly - at least the major manufacturers (HP, Epson, Canon, etc..) - not sure about some cheap out-of-the-country brand.

This stuff has been slowly creeping up for years, and you should assume that just because something looks untraceable, if it came from your computer, it just might be anyway.

[Rick Myers]

2. Boing-Boing has a story about the codes