Nitpick here, this is a list of color laser printers only.
List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
11–20 of 29 posts
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#12I'd rather have one of the printers listed as having yellow tracking dots and yank out the color cartridges. Its easier to disable a security measure you know than praying there isn't a security measure you don't know. There is still a chance of a redundancy but I believe it is somewhat lower - as normally companies would do the bare minimum to comply with a directive like this one.
> I'd rather have one of the printers listed as having yellow tracking dots and yank out the color cartridges. The trouble is that, for one dubious reason or another, a lot of modern laser printers will refuse to print without a complete set of cartridges that report that they contain sufficient toner. Whether the colour in question is actually required and whether enough toner is physically present do not seem to be…
That is easily solvable - clog/duct-tape the exit nozzle or tamper with the cartridge test (a lot of the substitute cartridges already disable this)
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#13Can someone clarify for me: 1) Why do manufacturers do this? Is it for their own internal warranty control / tracking, or is there a broader federal mandate motivating this? 2) The dots are only useful in after-the-fact analysis, correct? If I print something and then there's reason to suspect me they can print something, compare, and verify, but there's no mechanism to find the initial document and find the printer,…
It was intended as a tracking mechanism against counterfeit currency.
Isn't that just a beautiful explanation for security measures? Kind of like suspending or limiting Miranda Rights because of terror.
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#14Can someone clarify for me: 1) Why do manufacturers do this? Is it for their own internal warranty control / tracking, or is there a broader federal mandate motivating this? 2) The dots are only useful in after-the-fact analysis, correct? If I print something and then there's reason to suspect me they can print something, compare, and verify, but there's no mechanism to find the initial document and find the printer,…
It was intended as a tracking mechanism against counterfeit currency.
That's the explanation I've heard given in the past, although I don't know if it's the official one given. The East German Stasi also used to mark typewriters so that they could tell who wrote subversive articles.
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was intended as a tracking mechanism against counterfeit currency.
That's the explanation I've heard given in the past, although I don't know if it's the official one given. The East German Stasi also used to mark typewriters so that they could tell who wrote subversive articles.
[deleted]
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#16Can someone clarify for me: 1) Why do manufacturers do this? Is it for their own internal warranty control / tracking, or is there a broader federal mandate motivating this? 2) The dots are only useful in after-the-fact analysis, correct? If I print something and then there's reason to suspect me they can print something, compare, and verify, but there's no mechanism to find the initial document and find the printer,…
It was intended as a tracking mechanism against counterfeit currency.
But this isn't govt mandatated right? Its just a printer manufactures internal policy as I understand it.
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#17Nitpick here, this is a list of color laser printers only.
As I understand it, only color laser printers have the resolution to print these yellow dots at such a small size.
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#18Does this apply to international printer models as well?
I'm actually a bit spooked by this and it must be illegal somewhere. Well done EFF for publicising this.
I won't be registering my laser printer any time soon.
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#19Can someone clarify for me: 1) Why do manufacturers do this? Is it for their own internal warranty control / tracking, or is there a broader federal mandate motivating this? 2) The dots are only useful in after-the-fact analysis, correct? If I print something and then there's reason to suspect me they can print something, compare, and verify, but there's no mechanism to find the initial document and find the printer,…
Re 2: Supposedly the manufacturer is supposed to keep track of which printers go to which stores, and the stores are supposed to keep track of the credit card used to purchase the printers.
Hmm. Note to self: buy printers with non-sequential currency.
Then again, I wonder if they'll stop accepting cash for printer purchases if enough people did that (like they did with iPads)
Re: List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was intended as a tracking mechanism against counterfeit currency.
But this isn't govt mandatated right? Its just a printer manufactures internal policy as I understand it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation is also recognized in many photo-editing software packages like photoshop. not government mandated, but i'm sure the software companies get leaned on to support it.