If such a thing is real, then at best it is going to tell you the make of printer and possibly could tie a printer to certain print outs, but they would need to have the printer first.

If your really worried, pay cash or buy used and there is absolutely no way they will know the pattern of your printer.

I don't know that because I'm old. I know it because I remember them talking about that during the whole stink the propagandists launched against Dan Rather when he exposed Bush as a draft dodger.

And maybe a little because I'm old.

If this were true than all email messages would go thru cable and phone trunk lines that are scanned continuously by DARPA.

If this were true than all printers would have chipsets with access codes permitting the US military to hijack them and use them as IP listening devices in, oh, say, Iraq ... and now Iran.

If this were true than ... I couldn't say certain things were true, because I used to hold a SECRET clearance, and you aren't cleared to know this.

By the way, anyone notice that tinfoil prices are up?

A Top Secret clearance entitles you to know perhaps some of the context for what your unit is doing, as long the info is not restricted to those with a need to know (even if you are someone who needs to know).

A Top Secret clearance with an endorsement for Sensitive Compartmentalized Information entitles you to perhaps know some slightly sensitive aspects of the context for what your own unit is doing, assuming you have a legitimate need to know.

Holding a TS/SCI is fun and all, but don't let anyone bullshit you by claiming it grants any impressive access to government secrets.

"Yesterday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco consumer privacy group, said it had cracked the code used in a widely used line of Xerox printers, an invisible bar code of sorts that contains the serial number of the printer as well as the date and time a document was printed.

With the Xerox printers, the information appears as a pattern of yellow dots, each only a millimeter wide and visible only with a magnifying glass and a blue light.

The EFF said it has identified similar coding on pages printed from nearly every major printer manufacturer, including Hewlett-Packard Co., though its team has so far cracked the codes for only one type of Xerox printer."

If you've counterfeited or sent a terrorist manifesto from your color printer, you're probably fucked. Sorry.

Also, lostboy, assuming this is TOP SECRET or SENSITIVE BLA BLAH BLAH info... wouldn't whoever leaked this get in an awful fuckload of trouble for doing so? And why would one risk their own lives like that, just to tell everyone that color laser printers can be traced?

Sounds to me like a bunch of bullshit from the usual sources.

I couldn't say certain things were true, because I used to hold a SECRET clearance, and you aren't cleared to know this.

Also, the information about the laser printers wasn't leaked. It was uncovered by some enterprising journalists.

And even if this was about someone divulging classified information, the risk would be at worst some jail time, hardly life and death.

"Hi, how late are you open?... Thanks!"

"I'll be home in about 20 minutes. Did you remember to take some chicken out of the freezer? OK, love you, bye."

"Hello... Yes, this is the lady of the house... No, not interested, thanks."

"Hello... No, I'm sorry, you have the wrong number."

That's pretty much the sum total of the conversations I have on the telephone.