[wplug] Printer tracking dots

[Ben Beige]

It is am anti counterfeiting measure that has been around for years, was
really designd for color copiers but has carried on into printers too.
On Feb 24, 2015 12:31 PM, "Zachary Uram" <netrek at gmail.com> wrote:

> Scary. Big Brother is watching!
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 12:24 PM, John Lewis <oflameo2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > What printer does RMS use?
> >
> > On 02/24/2015 12:22 PM, Justin Smith wrote:
> > > According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the US government has
> > > convinced laser printer manufacturers such as Xerox to embed tiny,
> > > imperceptible tracking dots into every printed page.
> > >
> > > https://www.youtube.com/v/izMGMsIZK4U&hl=en_US&fs=1&[1]
> > >
> > > The EFF sells a blue LED keychain that claims to reveal these dots. I
> > > bought one, and it arrived yesterday. I tried it out on a test page
> from
> > one
> > > of our Xerox multifunction printers at work, and sure enough, the dots
> > > were there. I then tried to see if there were any dots on pages from
> the
> > > Brother inkjet printer I keep in my office, and there were none.
> > >
> > > If these laser printers had open source firmware, it would probably be
> a
> > > simple matter to remove the offending code. This, to me, shows how
> > > important it is for /every/ aspect of a technology device to be open
> > source.
> > >
> > > There's your interesting thought for the day.
> > >
> > >
> > > *Justin Smith*
> > > GNU/Linux System Administrator
> > >
> > > /"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
> > not;
> > > nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius
> will
> > > not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the
> > world is
> > > full of educated derelicts."/
> > >
> > > /-Calvin Coolidge/
> > >
> > > --------
> > > [1] https://www.youtube.com/v/izMGMsIZK4U&hl=en_US&fs=1&
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>
>
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