EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008) • Hacker News Board

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#11

Post by ZeK__ » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 11:21 AM UTC

madaxe_again wrote: post #8

Related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation

NOT related. This is not meant to track you. This is just a marking.

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#12

Post by tedunangst » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 12:28 PM UTC

throwawayaway wrote: post #9

kghose wrote: post #4

Use FedEx Kinko's. Wear a baseball cap and sunglasses when you go in.

with your phone left behind you and having dodged any security cameras between there and where you live. ...and all you want to do is print some flyers for a bake sale.

If the secret police want to know where your bake sale is, they'll probably just read the address on the flyer instead of decoding the magic tracking dots.

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#13

Post by msandford » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 1:02 PM UTC

joosters wrote: post #5

throwawayaway wrote: post #3

some related and useful info: https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d... i wonder if mono black laserjets have similar issues.

From the linked 'seeing yellow' site: "They are present in both color printers and copiers but do not show up in pages printed in black-and-white mode."

Because you can't print counterfeit currency with black and white, which is ostensibly the reason the whole thing got started.

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#14

Post by nmridul » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 1:21 PM UTC

Time to start a Paper company with pre-printed random yellow dots in it... The pre-printed dots should confuse the hell out of the Printer-printed dots....

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#15

Post by jellicle » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 1:41 PM UTC

ZeK__ wrote: post #11

madaxe_again wrote: post #8

Related: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation

NOT related. This is not meant to track you. This is just a marking.

It's a subliminal marking that is also a software instruction honored by most, if not all color copiers and scanners and many graphics software applications.

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#16

Post by plg » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 2:17 PM UTC

so can someone post a link to a tool or tools where one can decode these dots?

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#17

Post by joosters » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 2:29 PM UTC

johnchristopher wrote: post #6

I wonder if something like that is implemented in 3D printers.

... to stop someone forging gold bars?

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#18

Post by Zigurd » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 2:34 PM UTC

joosters wrote: post #17

johnchristopher wrote: post #6

I wonder if something like that is implemented in 3D printers.

... to stop someone forging gold bars?

Presumably such a mechanism in 3D printers would be used to try to stop people from printing guns and anything else a government might frown upon, like drug paraphernalia, etc.

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#19

Post by unics » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 2:57 PM UTC

When Color laserjet copiers first started being manufactured to the present quality that they are now I understand that the Treasury Dept requested manufacturers to include serial numbers in printed copy to track forgers of currencies. Microscopic serial numbers can be found within images interspersed throughout the image.

Re: EFF's “Yellow Dots of Mystery” (2008)

#20

Post by mcguire » Thu, Mar 26, 2015, 3:09 PM UTC

throwawayaway wrote: post #9

kghose wrote: post #4

Use FedEx Kinko's. Wear a baseball cap and sunglasses when you go in.

with your phone left behind you and having dodged any security cameras between there and where you live. ...and all you want to do is print some flyers for a bake sale.

"...print some flyers for a bake sale."

Hey, defeating traffic analysis isn't complex, it just takes a lot of work.