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Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

brahmsyellowdots.blogspot.com

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Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

#61

Post by ianterrell »

lisper wrote: post #60
hugh3 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. Apparently a lot of the people here are master criminals, because they seem to be awfully paranoid about the idea that police detectives can, if sufficiently motivated, deduce some information about their activities. (These sorts of folks must really hate Sherlock Holmes stories.) Personally, as a law-abiding citizen, I'm really not too concerned about being the target of a police investigation, and if…

You assume that the police care if you are guilty or not. They don't. The quality metric that police work towards is not finding the actual perpetrator, it is finding someone who can be convicted, or, even better, strongarmed into confessing and/or accepting a plea bargain. As a (mostly) law-abiding citizen myself I wish it were otherwise. But it isn't. See e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

You assume that the over three quarters of a million US law enforcement officers act uniformly. What's the statistical significance of a youtube video?

(Edit: The question's phrasing is for effect; I'm well aware there are egregious abuses documented in number greater than one. But I'm still not convinced that with the non-uniformity of the LEO population between different jurisdictions, etc, as well as the non-random selection bias, that all the accounts we have of LEO malevolence provide statistical certainty that police, overall, are bad.)

Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

#62

Post by philwelch »

hugh3 wrote: post #58
sliverstorm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it a Bad Thing(tm)? Is this more tin-foil-hat stuff...?

I don't know. Apparently a lot of the people here are master criminals, because they seem to be awfully paranoid about the idea that police detectives can, if sufficiently motivated, deduce some information about their activities. (These sorts of folks must really hate Sherlock Holmes stories.) Personally, as a law-abiding citizen, I'm really not too concerned about being the target of a police investigation, and if…

> if I ever am the target of a police investigation I'll be happy to hand over as much evidence as possible

I'm glad you're not my lawyer.

Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

#63

Post by tedunangst »

jholman wrote: post #43
jasonlotito wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government is made up of people like you. If you really want to enact change, you can. Government officials don't just become government officials. > I didn't create, buy, or even sanction it. But, you choose to live beneath it. If you don't like the rules, you can work to change it. This is a democracy though, so don't think that everyone will blindly agree with you. This obviously assumes you are an American…

> This obviously assumes you are an American. If you aren't, then I really don't see the issue. Let me start by supposing, as I think we all do, that this date-and-serial watermarking is indeed a form of spying on users of printers. Let me further suppose, perhaps more contentiously, that this international spying conspiracy of printer manufacturers is actually directed by some single nation-state (not an internation…

I'm not sure how watermarking counts as spying on you. Maybe if the printer were secretly emailing a copy of everything printed to the CIA, that'd be spying.

Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

#64

Post by sjwright »

tomkarlo wrote: post #55
kijin wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

As long as there's older-style currency in circulation, a forger only has replicate those bills and not the new hotness... currency only tends to last a few years in active circulation (at most) but I'd assume that many people will still accept a bill from a style printed 10 or 20 years ago.

Generally when there is a major change to a currency (such as the move to polymer banknotes [an awesome Australian invention] in Australia 15 years ago) the old style bills only remain in circulation for a short period, perhaps a year or so.

Within a couple of years, the old style notes become so exceptionally rare in everyday transactions that the presence of one raises eyebrows, and is inspected carefully. While our older style notes are technically still "legal tender", I doubt you'd find a single retailer across the country that would accept it.

Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

#67

Post by code_duck »

sliverstorm wrote: post #57
code_duck wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The humor attempt falls a bit flat especially given that Canadian currency has been hovering near parity with (or above) US currency for years.

Is that irony not part of the humor?

I don't really see how it would be, based on what you wrote, but okay.

Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

#68

Post by lisper »

ianterrell wrote: post #61
lisper wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You assume that the police care if you are guilty or not. They don't. The quality metric that police work towards is not finding the actual perpetrator, it is finding someone who can be convicted, or, even better, strongarmed into confessing and/or accepting a plea bargain. As a (mostly) law-abiding citizen myself I wish it were otherwise. But it isn't. See e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

You assume that the over three quarters of a million US law enforcement officers act uniformly. What's the statistical significance of a youtube video? (Edit: The question's phrasing is for effect; I'm well aware there are egregious abuses documented in number greater than one. But I'm still not convinced that with the non-uniformity of the LEO population between different jurisdictions, etc, as well as the non-rando…

> You assume that the over three quarters of a million US law enforcement officers act uniformly.

No, I don't. It only takes one less-than-perfectly-honest cop or prosecutor to totally destroy your life. Just ask Troy Davis. (Oh, wait, you can't. He's dead. He was recently executed for a crime he (almost certainly) did not commit.)

Being convicted of a crime you didn't commit may be a risk you're willing to take, but your snide remarks are not justified merely by the fact that others choose not to share your risk posture.

Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

#69

Post by blahedo »

grandalf wrote: post #65

Wouldn't it be easier to just add additional faint yellow dots to make the intended pattern impossible to determine?

This is a great idea. Once you know the grid pattern, you could probably just overlay your documents with faint yellow dots on that grid; if noticeable at all it would come across as a very faint yellow haze, but that's a tradeoff.

Re: Most laser printer printed pages have tracking watermark

#70

Post by umarmung »

kevinpet wrote: post #4

Reminds me of the typewriter registration in East Germany.

I wonder if these "security" features are on imported Chinese printers (from Chinese manufacturers). It is so easy to order generic products from Hong Kong, even online, these days, for example.
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