Do inkjet printed pages produce similar watermarks? Or is it just laser ones?
Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
21–30 of 109 posts
Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#22A good story, but you should really start reading it from the beginning:
Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#23Ahem. Most COLOR laser printers have tracking "watermarks". It's because the US Treasury frowns on printing your own replica currency, which would be unastonishingly easy to do with a color scanner and printer.
Isn't that why actual money has all those fancy strips and bumps? Canada just introduced $100 polymer notes this week. It's even partially transparent. Good luck faking that with consumer-grade laser printers. (Color inkjets might work better on transparent sheets.)
Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#24On a similar (but tangential) note: US currency notes have similar yellow circles, which are detected by photocopiers, which, in turn, then either (a) refuse to photocopy them, or (b) mangle the copy (put vertical bars through it). Try photocopying a $20 bill on a copier and see for yourself.
Careful there. The copier might automatically notify the Secret Service, too. You never know with today's network-enabled copiers...
Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#25Well-known, I'm afraid. You can find more information here: http://www.eff.org/issues/printers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_steganography It's probably related to the counter-measures against printing currency: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/photoshop-and-curr... There's some interesting information about what causes an image to be detected as currency here: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/project…
Well-known indeed (at least, I followed it with keen interest when it came out), but I think it's good that this resurfaces as I really don't think it got enough attention the first time around.
Personally I think the most worrying bits of data are first the time stamp, and second the printer serial number.
I say serial number is second because in a criminal investigation phorensics can also get a "fingerprint" of the printer by tracking imperfections in the way it's printed.
But the timestamp of when something was printed is definitely new information that otherwise would not be there and in certain circumstances would not want to be leaked.
Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#26Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#27Well-known, I'm afraid. You can find more information here: http://www.eff.org/issues/printers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_steganography It's probably related to the counter-measures against printing currency: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/photoshop-and-curr... There's some interesting information about what causes an image to be detected as currency here: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/project…
Well-known indeed (at least, I followed it with keen interest when it came out), but I think it's good that this resurfaces as I really don't think it got enough attention the first time around. Personally I think the most worrying bits of data are first the time stamp, and second the printer serial number. I say serial number is second because in a criminal investigation phorensics can also get a "fingerprint" of th…
But the timestamp of when something was printed is definitely new information that otherwise would not be there and in certain circumstances would not want to be leaked.
In particular, not only leaked to police, but in the case of printers where the dot pattern's been decoded, to anyone who might care when your document was printed.
Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why should they. It's YOUR government. You do it.
Like how they ignored everyone on bail outs, and the people against SOPA, etc etc etc. How they taunt us with those stupid online petitions. How the police are beating people. Yeah. Doing something works.
Guess we better sit down and wait to starve to death. Thanks for showing us the light, buddy.
Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why should they. It's YOUR government. You do it.
Like how they ignored everyone on bail outs, and the people against SOPA, etc etc etc. How they taunt us with those stupid online petitions. How the police are beating people. Yeah. Doing something works.
Doing something works. Just not within the confines of a political system, which is fundamentally based on violence and can't produce real freedom in the long run.
In the same way one wouldn't have infiltrated the Soviets to reform communism, or the KKK to reform slavery, one instead subverts, undermines and networks around it. Like the flourishing black markets in the Soviet-era, or the underground railroad, the Counter-Economy can grow, and eventually overcome and abolish the violence of the State, through non-violent means.
Want untracked printers? Consider the risk vs. reward of hacking one and profiting from distributing it on a black/gray market. It will be more more effective and more ethical than voting or any nonsense like that.
Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark
#30Well-known, I'm afraid. You can find more information here: http://www.eff.org/issues/printers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_steganography It's probably related to the counter-measures against printing currency: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/photoshop-and-curr... There's some interesting information about what causes an image to be detected as currency here: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sjm217/project…
Well-known indeed (at least, I followed it with keen interest when it came out), but I think it's good that this resurfaces as I really don't think it got enough attention the first time around. Personally I think the most worrying bits of data are first the time stamp, and second the printer serial number. I say serial number is second because in a criminal investigation phorensics can also get a "fingerprint" of th…
> I think it's good that this resurfaces as I really don't think it got enough attention the first time around.
No argument there. I just thought I'd share a lot of what's already known so that we don't have to rediscover it.