Yellow Dots of Mystery: Is Your Printer Spying on You?

[mrsntbrown]

Ok. First of all I always, always, always print everything in black and white and that is my default setting on my printer. Perhaps I have an old printer without that feature. Whatever. Second, if there was a serial killer, kidnapper or what have you I am glad that this is there so we can find those people and possibly save lives. So yeah... there's that. I don't print anything that I would be concerned about the gov'ment even coming after me about so if you do that's your fault. Just sayin'.

[vertevero]

@mrsntbrown Which government though?

[mrsntbrown]

@vertevero Any government. The only things I ever print are coupons and World of Warcraft stuff.

[TheHauntedMouth]

Even if you're not concerned with the privacy of your printouts, this is something to be upset about- they're wasting YOUR outrageously overpriced yellow ink to treat you like a criminal. I've had my printer refuse to print out a black and white document because it was out of yellow ink, and I had no idea why until I saw this. Needless to say, said printer is now in the garbage, and I'll be seeking an older one without this "feature".

[technoslam]

this is why it pays to buy used from from a yardsale

[TheHampdenRaven]

Remove the yellow ink?

[shoplifting1is1fun]

2:50

but wait, there's more! Order now in the next 10 minutes and you'll receive a second blue light absolutely free!

[OnlyBoo1]

HOW COME ON FIREFOX THE DOWNLOAD FOR FLASH PLAYER WANTS TO GO TO A BINARY FILE......HELP

[TubeofDestiny]

haha hilarious :D

[Pingijno]

fcking yellow dots!

[isis416]

Problem is now I know about these dots and find them all the time... I CAN SEE THEM!! AHH!

[itcanbecheezcaketime]

IF YOU WANT TOTAL ANONYMITY WHILE USING ELECTRONIC DEVICES, WEAR A FAKE BEARD.

[kennysandhoj]

Hmm i have a feeling he got that cat picture from /b/ =)

[pauljs75]

Some ink-jets are guilty too, and should be indexed by various sites in addition to the color laser printers. It's also noticeable on some models because the yellow ink runs out faster than what you'd expect. (Like when printing a lot of B/W pages without pictures.)

By knowing this much - if somebody can determine the dot spacing for certain models, it wouldn't be too hard to jam or falsify the code by intentionally adding noise to the pattern.

Also I wonder what the printer drivers are doing?

[TaiFerret]

What if you print on yellow paper?

[Pr0nfessor]

And what if you print in black and white?

[hplaserjet2001]

@Pr0nfessor

The yellow dots will still print if you are printing black and white on a colour printer.

Initially, the US Secret Service asked manufacturers of colour printers and photocopiers to include this technology in their products so they could track the source of print material.

The US Secret Service "claims" the request was made so that they could track counterfeiters.

[OnlyBoo1]

@hplaserjet2001 THANKS FOR THE INFO.......

[shoplifting1is1fun]

@hplaserjet2001

It's always for your own good. Just like SOPA and those evil filthy pirates.

[hplaserjet2001]

@shoplifting1is1fun

Yes, they have a cover story for everything. People are waking up to their nonsense.

[shoplifting1is1fun]

@hplaserjet2001

And those people will forget and move on soon enough. Then they can pass the bill with no trouble or controversy.

[120891314]

O'Brien!!

[mohaas05]

OMG YELLOW DOTS! 1984!

[ejonesss]

not completely foolproof all one has to do is print from a printer salvaged from a dumpster or recycling center and if it gets traced it goes back to who ever threw it out.

it is like piggybacking on wifi

[pauljs75]

@ejonesss Just make sure that whatever drivers you use for the second-hand printer don't update online or have any access to the internet. Otherwise there is good risk that such scheme can be broken. Think about it for a second. There is a good chance that such process can tie the printer to an IP, which will narrow the geographical source for where the printout originated.

Using Windows or Mac, the OS itself might rat out too. You never know.

Other than that, such advice makes sense.

[scwolf81]

LOL Conspiracy... All we need now is printers in the home that acctuly have heads that fine or even paper that you can read that on... its a secret, top secret goverment!! xDDDD

[fjmi]

for all idiots: beside your personal rights there's another thing, you have to pay for that. yellow toner is wasted and will be the first who is empty

[MiKikaIwaShizaru]

Darn, now I can't print million dollar bills!

(But I can still print some pennies onto cardboard! BWAH- HA-HA)

How selfless of the printer companies to go above and beyond the call of duty!

Let's print them up some yellow stars!

[Averysfeit]

A FREE!!! YES FREE BLUE FLASHLIGHT for just a donation of 5 dollars

[mindbenderrx]

That is very creepy. Thanks EFF.

[TheSender]

You have captured the imbecility of British journalism with perfection.

[strommsarnac]

Um, so people are all upset that something they used to print with can be directly tied to what they print?

How short public memory is. I say that because back when everyone used typewriters, each typewriter had it's own unique "signature" it left on the paper. Not all letters were perfect and those imperfections were unique to each printer. This was used by police even as far back as the 40's.

Maybe people just need to learn about accountability.

[mkotisrael]

a man has many, many ways to distribute printed political pamphlets without them being traced back o him. e.g.- xerox machines and regular ink injection printers. democracy and freedom of speech arent jeopardized at all by these yellow dots. i suspect that some people in this organization are only in it to counterfeit money.

people do need to learn about accountability, couldnt agree more, @strommsarnac

[WorBlux]

@strommsarnac

The printers are doing this without the permission or prompting of the user. No costumer asked for the feature, thus it's and anti-feature.

The mechanical variances or the typewriters were incidental, and typewriters could probably only reliablly identified to, make, model, and amount of use a typewriter had, as compared to the exact serial number. A yes the letter is consistent with the sort of typewriter owned by this guy vs. this guy definitely printed this.

[mattisthegodofwar]

holy shit! now way!

[nenasinpena]

LMAO

5:56

"hello"

[dragonmoony]

omg...

[NakedOldGuy]

Oh please. I've known about this for 5 or 6 years now - it is used primarily to track down people who print out counterfeit money. Hence, don't print counterfeit money and try to use it because the secret service will be on your ass.

[autopsi]

We should install camera in every house - it is primarily to track down terrorist. Hence, don't be a terrorist or plan your attack in your home because Homeland Security will be on your ass.

[Mnementh2230]

Time to revert back to the ol' Dot Matrix printer from the 1980s...

[livvidd]

or buy one from a garage sale

[GLeNss]

I wish my printer could squeal on me but the fucker ran outta ink the day I bought it.

[wishkah353]

theres a simple way to stop printer companies from doing this.

don't buy their printers lol. i bet if a couple thousand people boycotted buying printers or ink for about a month, lexmark would heed our request in a heart beat.

only good thing about capitalism. then again.. most people prob dont even give a crap about being spied on..

@EFForg If you want to get on the news, start this boycott. get as many people as you can to sign a petition, internet protest, anything and i guarantee you win.

[Superbestable]

Unfortunately, this is apparently the norm for the industry. It will take time for the boycott to reach significant size, and imagine having to live without a printer for years.

[BrownBootyBruno]

lol, free for only a donation of $5

rofl

[MORHSN]

Lol, Really dumb sentence!

[meamoasis]

What gives them the right to SPY on people.... they all make me sick!

[MORHSN]

This is rumors,

Not real,

This was spread out by Ink companies in order to reduce the use of Laser Printers.

[SweeeeeetAs]

lol!

[JXZjeremy]

This is nice to know....

NOW HOW DO I DISABLE IT?

[JXZjeremy]

"At the REQUEST of the government, not in COMPLIANCE of the law"

Well why isn't it law? Because it's control, it's infringing on the first amendment all it's just another way to control and spy on the American people.

Just like the fact that ChaseMorgan will probably be the only bank around in the next 20 years.

[Readingiseasy]

Does Deskjet f4280 have yellow dots on paper when you print?

[anotherelvis]

If you have a good LCD camera, then you can use gimp to change the colors. Jus change to CMYK and remove two channels. They are very visible.

[vel10109]

lol 3:56 , if you listen carefully, you hear someone in the background

[seskie]

lol yea someone choking

[WRETCHEDxSINNER]

3:56

[Eggman7890]

what is that sound?

[WRETCHEDxSINNER]

i think someone was hawkin up a loogie lol.

[Snowflake70]

This has been known for some time along with several other methods to mostly to help foil counterfeiters but there are more sinister reasons for these codes and they should be outlawed.

[JXZjeremy]

CONTROL.

[paolopan83]

are they serious? how can a 5$ light replace a 2000x microscope?

[andrewbnkjv]

Nice dig: Luckly I white out all the yellow dots after I print each page. Doesn't everyone?

lol-awesome crack.

[tuxedoman64]

damn it. i have shitty handwriting too. way to get me a lil more paranoid

[thebudgetgamer]

looks like i will have to go back to writing my ransom note with magazine clippings

:)

[truindep]

i always have the person i kidnap write the note-i hate monkeying about with scissors and glue.

[MiKikaIwaShizaru]

@truindep Tell me about it!

Now I need a hacksaw to cut up my iPad magazine's letters!

[crappy7619]

This has been used in practice for years. It has been used by the FBI and police to help in death threat {Axol) or other items where people have used their printer for something illegal.

[therealpiekid]

Is it just color printers? Also, did this start recently, or has it been happening for a while?

[jordanlwxbox]

It's not bullshit,

It's true you ignorant 12 year old American.

[MrCriticize]

but soooooooo what, who care's, why should i be paranoid, if i want to pull off a major crime i would just buy a cheap printer then dispose of it quickly. But seriously, the fbi are no different to the old kgb accept that fbi are a lot more clever as they are a lot more sly and elusive.

If anything this is just a tip off to any kidnappers etc out there and more fuel for the paranoid conspiracy nuts

[Axol]

Wonder if its real :P.. I'll have to stop sending people death mail :D:D

[dagurgisla]

Hey, where did you get those creepy horror sounds?

[goobernutz]

where did you get that creepy nerdy dude?

[revoloser65]

1984

[UncleMax27]

Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you.

Thanks for bringing this issue to light. I'm pretty curious as to how somebody noticed this in the first place. Printouts sitting too close to the blue led lights from a computer?