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Secret Printer ID Codes May Be Illegal In the EU
Posted by
kdawson
on Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:49 AM
from the seeing-yellow dept.
from the seeing-yellow dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "In response to a query from a member of the EU Parliament, an EU commissioner issued an official statement (.DOC) saying that, while they do not violate any laws, secret printer tracking dot codes may violate the human right to privacy guaranteed by the EU's Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. If you don't remember what these are, Slashdot has discussed the issue before. In short, most color printers print small yellow dots on every sheet in a code that identifies the printer and, potentially, its owner. The EFF is running an awareness campaign, and a couple of years back made a start on deciphering the yellow dot code."
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Your Rights Online: Hidden Codes in Printers Cracked 562 comments
r84x writes "A research team led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently broke the code behind tiny tracking dots that some color laser printers secretly hide in every document.
The U.S. Secret Service admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters. However, the nature of the private information encoded in each document was not previously known.
"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 EFF Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen."
Submission: Secret Printer ID Codes May Be Illegal In The EU by Anonymous Coward
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Simple enough fix (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Simple enough fix (Score:5, Interesting)
But that printer is a bit different in that it rotates the toner cartridges into place for every color that is going to go on each page, so a color page has to wait for all 4(CMYK [wikipedia.org]) cartridges to rotate into place, but in black-only mode doesn't rotate anything to be about 5-6x faster.
The reason I chose that printer? Konica-Minolta supplies open-source printer drivers that compiled on my AMD64-Ubuntu box.
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Re:Simple enough fix (Score:5, Interesting)
Seth
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Re:Simple enough fix (Score:5, Informative)
On the bright side, most color lasers do not insert the yellow dots on black and white pages, though a few models from various manufactures DO tag every single page.
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Re:Simple enough fix (Score:5, Interesting)
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virtual MOD points. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, in theory adding random dots would introduce noise into the signal and potentially degrade it to the points it's no longer useful, but only if you can interfere with the pattern. Put another way, unless you know the location of the dot codes, to reach the level of noise necessary to obscure you'd have to cover the page; there would be so many random yellow dots so as to be perceptible.
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Re:Simple enough fix (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmm, yeah, I did phrase that badly. But, color/grayscale mode is relevant to the page printed, and the printer could put the yellow dots down on an otherwise grayscale page, just that for that specific model it would be much slower.
Re:Simple enough fix (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If they are only there once, you could remove them.
If they are there once or multiple times, you can over print select dots and mess up the validity of the codes.
Re:Simple enough fix (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
What about digital cameras? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm curious...
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Re:What about digital cameras? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:What about digital cameras? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sometimes you can see specifications like "12 Megapixels, 11.1 effective".
These defects are scattered among the surface of the CCD and are statistically unique from one camera to another, even among the same model. While the photos often aren't saved in raw formats, I'd wager if they find a picture of something illegal and wanted to prove your camera took the picture, it'd be trivial to take some pictures with it and match the output files' flaws even with the JPEG encoding by using a control camera of the same shot.
Like how they do ballistic analysis by finding a suspect's gun and fire off a few rounds and compare with rounds found at the scene of a crime.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
These defects are scattered among the surface of the CCD and are statistically unique from one camera to another, even among the same model. While the photos often aren't saved in raw formats, I'd wager if they find a picture of something illegal and wanted to prove your camera took the picture, it'd be trivial to take some pictures with it and match the output files' flaws even with the JPEG encoding by using a control camera of the same shot.
Like how they do ballistic analysis by finding a suspect's gun and fire off a few rounds and compare with rounds found at the scene of a crime.
Hey Applekid, that's a really interesting point... the pattern of hot/cold pixels on an image sensor is almost certainly unique to that camera.
That, however, is not so troubling to me. Tying a "weapon" to a "crime" after the fact is a pretty standard and legitimate technique. What I'm more troubled by is the idea that camera makers would *pre-emptively* record a unique fingerprint of each camera, *in case* it ever gets used to do something illegal, or just to snoop and follow a trail of photographs on th
Re:What about digital cameras? (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, EXIF is a pretty open standard and there exist numerous utilities to strip the data out when desired. You very well might not want everyone on Flikr to know the serial number of your camera. There is also a "Maker's section" where the camera manufacturers can place non standard, obfuscated and / or encrypted data.
Both Canon and Nikon use these features to create a system to prove that a given camera actually took a given picture [nikonusa.com]. So it can go both ways depending on how you have your tin foil situated.
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Re:What about digital cameras? (Score:4, Funny)
exif pict7801.jpg
There you have the non-binary exif information.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Human Rights or European Citizen Rights? (Score:5, Insightful)
First topic on the agenda: biometrics for visitors [slashdot.org].
Or was privacy only guaranteed to European Citizens?
Re:Human Rights or European Citizen Rights? (Score:5, Informative)
No-one ever gets this right. Including the summary of this article.
The Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, is a document of The Council of Europe.
It has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the European Union. This is not the same organization, despite having SIMILAR membership, and the word Europe in the title. In fact, not all Council of Europe members are actually European -- Turkey for example.
Parent
Re:Human Rights or European Citizen Rights? (Score:4, Funny)
Quit your complaining. Didn't the government just raise the chocolate ration by 20 grams?
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Prevent your printer from being registered (Score:5, Interesting)
2. Maybe pay cash when buying printer.
3. Do not send in warranty card.
4. Don't let a factory rep or facility service it.
If you can prevent the printer's serial # from being tied to your identity, you should be OK. Of course, some of the very high-end printers can only be bought from the manufacturer or a registered VAR, so don't use those types of printers for nefarious deeds.
I don't know about printers, but apparently with Canon digital cameras they will register the camera serial number with your name if you send it in to Canon for service.
Re:Prevent your printer from being registered (Score:5, Informative)
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If your printer's serial # gets registered with the address on that tax return, and then you print some "illegal" stuff, it would come back to that person, but all they have to say is "I had ray-auch print my tax return", and then a single test-page from your printer would reveal that you printed both documents.
But, if the police don't care that much, then yeah, your plan would work.
At any rate, it would cause problems for the other
Re:Prevent your printer from being registered (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Every color laser printer made in the last 10 years from every manufacturer that I have ever encountered uses the "yellow dots" tagging.
2. You have 300-12k hanging around in cash? Go for it.
3. You're not going to take advantage of the "get out of jail free" card the absolves you from a 300-1000 dollar repair for one year. Other than that, this may prevent your identiy from being tied to your shiney new printer.
4. Goooooood luck. When it breaks, you need someone to fix it or you will be dumping a ton of cash out fairly often for new machines.
I'd like to know why this is such a big deal to individual people first off. This system has been in place for more than a decade in most machines and no one has ever said anything before, nor, I believe, has it ever been used to screw someone over OR catch a criminal...
Am I saying I agree with the practice of tagging every page? Heck NO! I've never liked the idea since they introduced it originally, I believe, to prevent people from using high end laser printers to counterfiet money and if they did, to trace it back to the one(s) responsible.
To my knowledge, it's never been used as such. I implore someone to prove me wrong if I am.
The only ones that should be even overly concerned (aside from wasted toner and unneeded wear and tear on printing components) is large companies or government institutions.
This whole issue is not a major one. It's more of an annoyance that would be nice if it was removed.
P.S. - If you can get some, print a color page on black paper (preferably semi-gloss), the dots stand out really well... failing that if you have a large high volume printer available with a transfer belt easily veiwable, start a 4 page print job and pop the cover halfway through to force it to jam, the dots are sometimes (depends on the model and stage of the imaging process) very visible on the belt.
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TRAITOR (Score:4, Interesting)
> I'd like to know why this is such a big deal to individual people first off.
Because some of us actually organise against the machinations of the state, perhaps you've heard of extraordinary rendition the US govt. has been doing or the 30,000 Argentines [desaparecidos.org] who were disappeared between 1976 and 1978 for opposing their govt.
It is extraordinarily naive of you to think that having previously secret (thanks in part to YOU) invisible identifying marks on every document printed from your printer isn't a cause for concern.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Prevent your printer from being registered (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm glad that your primary concern is large companies and government institutions. As I wrote in the EFF Deeplink, our concern includes dissidents working in authoritarian regimes who remain ignorant about this feature of the technology they use to spread their work, and the authoritarian governments intent on tracing and suppressing their citizen's literature and information sources -- who are not so ignorant.
Do you think the printer companies would proudly mention if their tracking technology was used to catch these undesirables?
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Blue Light Special (Score:4, Informative)
They stand out just fine on white paper under blue light, as one of the EFF pages [eff.org] illustrates.
1. Every color laser printer made in the last 10 years from every manufacturer that I have ever encountered uses the "yellow dots" tagging.
Then I guess you haven't encountered HP 4500 or HP 8500 series printers (maybe they don't need to be repaired as much?). One of the other EFF pages lists a number of other printer models that don't use yellow dots (which isn't to say that they don't use some other kind of tagging).
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
find the dots (Score:4, Interesting)
"human right to privacy" (Score:4, Insightful)
however, in today's terror-terrorized (is that a new expression?) world, there IS no more 'right to privacy'.
I wish there was! but even in europe, there really is not a right to privacy.
even in the US constitution, is there ANY real clauses that talk about right to privacy? other than illegal search and seizure (which has been bastardized into 'we can invade your house and do a sneek-and-peek anytime we SAY so') - there is no right to privacy.
it should be added as a fundamental right, but I don't expect it anytime soon. too much power is gotton by violating your privacy. power is addicting and so the gov won't ever give THAT one back. horse has long left the barn..
Re:"human right to privacy" (Score:5, Informative)
Please see Amendment 4, Amendment 5, Amendment 9 and Amendment 10.
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Tag badsummary. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Tag badsummary. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes but that doesn't mean that it could not be used by, say an agency that wishes to monitor who is distributing political leaflets for example. Looking at the US from the outside, freedom of speech and the press are wonderful - it seems that your government is accessing more and more ways to check how you are using those freedoms.
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regardless... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd like to think the above paragraph is a joke. But it's not. Night is falling on the UK.
EFF Code Cracking Guide (Score:5, Informative)
Nobody noticed... (Score:4, Insightful)
What's worse is that we're so inured to this sort of thing, nobody even noticed!
Fenestrae delendae sunt.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Naw, you can just look at it in Openoffice or whatever. Hell, even Microsoft has free Word viewers floating around. And if you really object that much to even touching a .doc, you can mail it to one of those fancy document-converters [labnol.org] and have it turned into a pdf...
Hate Microsoft (or the EU) all you want, but this is rather stupid as a reason.
No big deal (Score:5, Funny)
wait a second... (Score:3, Insightful)
And they are concerned whether printed paper contains a code that is not even tied to a person but merely a print engine? Don't make me laugh.
Similar technology in scanners/copiers... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Similar technology in scanners/copiers... (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They are all color laser printers. In my color laser [newegg.com] printer, even the "freebie" toner cartridges that came with the printer last for 1,500 pages, and then I replaced them after 2,000 pages with high-capacity cartridges that last for 4,500 pages each.
Also, I am pretty sure all of them use 4 colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, so that your "order confirmation" printing would only use the color toner that was needed.
Re:Confusing the code (Score:4, Interesting)
Good way to frame someone?
"This must have come from your printer, the serial number is embedded in the page"
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Benjamin Franklin
Re:Privacy is over-rated. (Score:5, Informative)
a)The license plates are clearly visible, while the printer code is intended to be unnoticeable by the user. I.e, most users don't even know they are being tracked.
b)When you drive your car you are using public infrastructure, such as the roads. In many countries there is no obligation to have license plates on a car you only use in a private space.
c) The license plate identifies one particular car, not [necessarily] the factory that made it. The printer code identifies the printer, not the paper it is on.
I'm sure there is more, but clearly the parent post is just another example that car analogies suck.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Privacy isn't the only problem, it affects business and profits too. We were counterfeiting $20 bills and had to switch our whole operation over to engraved plates and old printing presses. Overhead has gone through the roof.
Now with Clinton and Obama talking about mandatory health insurance and unionization, we could be out of business next January.
I wish the government would just leave me alone and quit watchin
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But I suppose you could silkscreen it after printing it.