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) - docucolor 12 craigslist (9) - printer fingerprints (9) - fingerprint printer (7) - xerox printer hack (7) - color laser printer hidden fingerprint (6) - printer forensics (5) - kinkos fingerprinting (5) - printer hidden fingerprint (5) - hack yellow dot on printers (4) - xerox docucolor 12, craigslist (4) - xerox fingerprint (4) - the color blue (4) - color laser fingerprint (4) - craigslist docucolor 12 (3) - hacking xerox printers (3) - color printer fingerprint (3) - color printer hidden fingerprint (3) - google cl (3) - Fingerprinting printer (3) - finger printing printers (3) - kinkos fingerprints (3) - Fingerprint printers (3) - colour laser fingerprint (3) - hacking docucolor 240 (3) - unique laser printer fingerprint CSI (2) - laser printer hidden identifier (2) - xerox google printer hack (2) - printer livin serial marks (2) - kinkos fingerprint (2) - craigslist xerox docucolor 12 (2) - EFF cracks Xerox printer fingerprinting code (2) - craigslist DOC 12 (2) - pinter fingerprint (2) - docucolor 240 yellow dots (2) - DocuColor Tracking Dot hack (2) - crack docucolor 240 (2) - docucolor craigslist (2) - fingerprinting printers (2) - craigslist docucolor (2) - laser printer fingerprinting (2) - printer fingerprint serial number (2) - xerox docucolor 240 blue all color (2) - hidden printer fingerprint (2) - fingerprint serial (2) - how to hack yellow dot on printers (2) - docucolor hack (1) - craigslist doc240 (1) - docucolor 240 serial # (1) - new printers leaves fingerprints (1) - forensic printer tracking marks (1) - do all printers fingerprint (1) - forensic printer fingerprints (1) - xerox docucolor 240 codes (1) - FingerPrint 2.0 crack (1) - printer fingerprint tracking (1) - google printer hacks (1) - forensic printer codes (1) - Printer yellow dots (1) - printer hidden yellow dots (1) - CRAIGLIST DOCUCOLOR 20 NOV 2009 (1) - CRAIGLIST DOCUCOLOR 18 NOV 2009 (1) - hack xerox counter (1) - electronic fingerprint controversy (1) - docucolor 12, craigslist (1) - craigslist xerox doc 12 (1) - Fingerprint Goes v2.0 serial (1) - scion xb 2005 yellow craigslist (1) - xerox hidden print (1) - fingerprint and kinko's (1) - xerox docucolor 12 craigslist (1) - fingerprint with printer (1) - hack the life fingerprint (1) - xerox 12 craigslist (1) - electronic fingerprint printer (1) - xerox docucolor 240, craigslist (1) - serial fingerprint 2.00 (1) - hidden printer yellow (1) - xerox counter crack (1) - printer hidden dots (1) - docucolor reverse counter (1) - change print counter on a xerox dc12 (1) - fingerprints kinkos (1) - printer leaves a fingerprint (1) - printer yellow serial (1) - kinko's fingerprinting (1) - All the hidden codes of Xerox DocuColor 12 Printer (1) - fingerprint serial 2.00 (1) - printer yellow dot hacking (1) - fingerprint yellow dot xerox (1) - xerox printer counter hack (1) - xerox pageback crack (1) - serial fingerprint 2.0 (1) - kinkos.com and fingerprinting (1) - forensics printer (1) - yellow fingerprint dots (1) - do all printer leave a fingerprint (1) - how to change the counter on xerox dc12 (1) - FingerPrint1.2 key crack (1) - DocuColor Yellow Dot (1) - hack printer xerox (1) - DocuColor 240 hack (1) - xerox printer hacking (1) - magnified fingerprint (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 printer hacks (1) - how to hack docucolor 240 (1) - hack xerox printer (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) - kinkos and fingerprinting (1) - printers fingerprints (1) - background color (1) - blue color (1) - color graphics (1) - Laser printers (1) - xerox online printer hack (1) - craigslist.org xerox doc 240 (1) - csi 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) - craiglist xerox 240 (1) -
