It's illegal to sell printers that don't spy on you. πŸ•΅οΈβ€β™‚οΈπŸ‘ΎπŸ–¨οΈπŸ“„@

2 months ago
16

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots

Ever wonder why you run out of color ink when you only print in black and white?

Printer tracking dots or "machine identification code" (MIC), is a digital watermark which all color laser printers and copiers sold in the USA produce on every printed page that identifies the specific device that was used to print the document. Their arrangement encodes the serial number of the device, date and time of the printing, and is repeated several times across the printing area in case of errors.

The civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) stated in 2015 that the documents that they previously received through a Freedom of Information Act request suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered into a clandestine agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers are forensically traceable.

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