aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Monday, July 25, 2005
Your printer a spy?
Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer—and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of “Alias,” right?
Unfortunately, the scenario isn’t fictional. In an effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you’re using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what’s worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse… Your freedom to speak anonymously is in danger.
Yet there are no laws to stop the Secret Service—or for that matter, any other governmental agency or private company—from using printer codes to secretly trace the origin of non-currency documents. We’re unaware of any printer manufacturer that has a privacy policy that would protect you, and no law regulates what people can do with the information once it’s turned over. And that doesn’t even reach the issue of how such a privacy-invasive tool could be developed and implemented in printers without the public becoming aware of it in the first place.
With nothing on the books, we lack tools to stop the privacy and anonymity violations this technology enables. For this reason, EFF is gathering information about what printers are revealing and how—a necessary precursor to any legal challenge or new legislation to protect your privacy. And we could use your help.
If you have a color laser printer, they want you to send test sheets. Details of what they’ve observed so far are in this preliminary research paper.
Via Boing Boing.
New Mac Minis
Possibly out tomorrow. And I have a birthday coming up…
UPDATE: They’re here. Think Secret was very careful to explain in that first post that it had gleaned its information from “part numbers...showing up in Apple databases.” No lawsuit-provoking insider information this time around.
Thank you guest bloggers!
I’m home, but with a toothache so hardly as rested and ready to go as I’d hoped. I’m tempted to impose upon Basil to extend his stay!
I want to thank you Basil, for the depth and breadth of your postings. I appreciate your picking up the slack while I was away. It was great having you here, and I hope you’ll come back.
And Brew, thank you too. I wonder, did you notice that your guest post occasioned the first aTypical Joe citation in Slate? Kewl!
