Maybe everyone else in the world knows this, but I didn’t:
FOR YEARS, governments all over the world have secretly been collaborating with the high-end color laser-printer industry in order to track the origin of every color copy made. They’re doing it by programming the printers to create specific patterns of yellow dots—not visible to the naked eye—on every copy. These dot patterns are codes for serial numbers, makes of printer and possibly even the time and date made. By cross-checking this information with printer company databases of people who have purchased the printers, federal agents can figure out who made a given color copy and when. No, really.
That’s…amazing.
According to the article, this technology was added to color printers in order to foil money counterfeiters. But there are so many more uses for the information…and there’s no legislation to regulate it. The printer companies just hand over whatever information the Feds ask for.
Wow.
I’d like to feel secure since I use a B&W laser printer….but somehow, I just don’t.