News came out a while ago that many of our laser printers were embedding “fingerprints” that allowed folks who knew how (like, say, the feds) to trace a printed page back to the day and time it was printed, and the serial number of the printer.
Or, at least that was the theory, until the EFF got all CSI on it. The image above is magnified 10x and illuminated with blue light to increase the contrast of the yellow dot pattern used by Xerox DocuColor printers. Some good reverse engineering efforts now allow folks to decipher those fingerprints, and the EFF even has a handy little form (go to the bottom of the page) to allow you to figure it out yourself.
dot patterns, eff, electronic frontier foundation, fingerprint, forensics, printer, printer fingerprinting, privacy, spying, tracking, xerox, xerox docucolor
Posted April 13, 2006 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Politics & Controversy, Technology. Tags: dot patterns, eff, electronic frontier foundation, fingerprint, forensics, printer, printer fingerprinting, privacy, spying, tracking, xerox, xerox docucolor.
No Comments Yet
No comments yet.
Comments RSS
TrackBack Identifier URI
User contributed tags for this post:
printer (23) - printer fingerprinting (17) - printer fingerprint (13) - laser printer fingerprint (11) - printer fingerprints (9) - docucolor 12 craigslist (8) - xerox printer hack (7) - fingerprint printer (7) - color laser printer hidden fingerprint (6) - printer forensics (5) - printer hidden fingerprint (5) - kinkos fingerprinting (5) - the color blue (4) - hack yellow dot on printers (4) - xerox docucolor 12, craigslist (4) - xerox fingerprint (4) - color laser fingerprint (4) - color printer hidden fingerprint (3) - color printer fingerprint (3) - hacking xerox printers (3) - colour laser fingerprint (3) - hacking docucolor 240 (3) - craigslist docucolor 12 (3) - kinkos fingerprints (3) - google cl (3) - Fingerprinting printer (3) - Fingerprint printers (3) - finger printing printers (3) - printer fingerprint serial number (2) - xerox docucolor 240 blue all color (2) - craigslist DOC 12 (2) - kinkos fingerprint (2) - laser printer fingerprinting (2) - laser printer hidden identifier (2) - EFF cracks Xerox printer fingerprinting code (2) - fingerprinting printers (2) - fingerprint serial (2) - docucolor 240 yellow dots (2) - unique laser printer fingerprint CSI (2) - pinter fingerprint (2) - craigslist xerox docucolor 12 (2) - hidden printer fingerprint (2) - xerox google printer hack (2) - crack docucolor 240 (2) - printer livin serial marks (2) - docucolor craigslist (2) - DocuColor Tracking Dot hack (2) - craigslist docucolor (2) - how to hack yellow dot on printers (2) - xerox docucolor 12 craigslist (1) - scion xb 2005 yellow craigslist (1) - forensic printer fingerprints (1) - printer hidden mark (1) - printer fingerprint tracking (1) - DocuColor Yellow Dot (1) - hack xerox counter (1) - xerox hidden print (1) - fingerprint and kinko's (1) - electronic fingerprint controversy (1) - printer hidden yellow dots (1) - craigslist xerox doc 12 (1) - docucolor hack (1) - craigslist doc240 (1) - docucolor 240 serial # (1) - new printers leaves fingerprints (1) - forensic printer codes (1) - xerox docucolor 240 codes (1) - docucolor 12, craigslist (1) - All the hidden codes of Xerox DocuColor 12 Printer (1) - serial fingerprint 2.00 (1) - xerox docucolor 240, craigslist (1) - hack the life fingerprint (1) - printer yellow serial (1) - kinko's fingerprinting (1) - how to change the counter on xerox dc12 (1) - yellow fingerprint dots (1) - forensics printer (1) - xerox pageback crack (1) - fingerprint yellow dot xerox (1) - fingerprint serial 2.00 (1) - fingerprint with printer (1) - FingerPrint 2.0 crack (1) - printer hidden dots (1) - docucolor reverse counter (1) - FingerPrint1.2 key crack (1) - printer yellow dot hacking (1) - xerox printer counter hack (1) - electronic fingerprint printer (1) - kinkos.com and fingerprinting (1) - do all printer leave a fingerprint (1) - xerox 12 craigslist (1) - google printer hacks (1) - hidden printer yellow (1) - xerox counter crack (1) - Printer yellow dots (1) - change print counter on a xerox dc12 (1) - fingerprints kinkos (1) - printer leaves a fingerprint (1) - forensic printer tracking marks (1) - xerox counter hack (1) - DocuColor 240 hack (1) - xerox printer hacking (1) - hidden printers fingerprint (1) - printer laser yellow fingerprint (1) - laser printer finger printing (1) - hack counter for docucolor 240 (1) - PRINTER TO FINGERPRINT (1) - PRINTER FOR FINGERPRINT (1) - xerox docucolor 240, craigslist.org (1) - printer hack yellow (1) - xerox online printer hack (1) - hack printer xerox (1) - xerox printer hacks (1) - how to hack docucolor 240 (1) - docucolor 240 crack (1) - printer dot magnified (1) - printers that leave fingerprints (1) - fingerprint printer api (1) - frontier docucolor 240 (1) - fingerprinting kinkos (1) - magnified fingerprint (1) - printers fingerprints (1) - background color (1) - blue color (1) - color graphics (1) - Laser printers (1) - craigslist.org xerox doc 240 (1) - csi printer fingerprint (1) - colour printer fingerprint (1) - hack printer (1) - xerox docu 12 craigslist (1) - xeroxing fingerprints (1) - color laser printer hacks (1) - forensic tracking codes in a Xerox DocuColor color laser printout (1) - xerox 240, craigslist.org (1) - photographic printer for fingerprints (1) - color printer forensics serial number (1) - laser print yellow fingerprint (1) - used docucolor 240 (1) - xerox docucolor 12 serial number (1) - hidden finger print in colour printers CSI (1) - hidden finger print in printer (1) - hack fingerprint (1) - color laser printer fingerprint (1) - printer fingerprint name (1) -
