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Watchdog group says some printers track consumer information through hidden codes.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a consumer privacy and digital rights organization, says there are codes embedded in printouts made by some color laser printers that can be used to track the origin of a printed document.

The codes are ostensibly a part of anti-counterfeiting measures developed by government agencies to curb the creation of fake currency but could have serious implications for consumer privacy, according to privacy advocates. Government sources and at least one manufacturer confirm they work together on occasions to help prevent counterfeiting.
A research team led by the EFF said that it has broken the code behind tiny tracking dots that some color laser printers secretly hide in every document.

?We?ve found that the dots from at least one line of printers encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of the printer,? said Seth David Schoen, staff technologist at EFF.

?What other deals have been or are being made to ensure that our technology rats on us??
-Lee Tien, Electronic Frontier Foundation

According to Mr. Schoen, the dots are yellow, less than one millimeter in diameter, and are typically repeated over each page of a document. The pattern is visible under blue light with the help of a magnifying glass or a microscope, the foundation said.

EFF and its partners began their project to break the printer code with the Xerox DocuColor line. Researchers compared dots from test pages, noting similarities and differences in their arrangement, and then found a simple way to read the pattern, the foundation said.

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