I wonder whether whether it’s possible to render this effectively useless in software by just adding more yellow dots to the image.
List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots
Submitted 7 months ago by toaster@slrpnk.net to privacyguides@lemmy.one
https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots
Comments
tal@lemmy.today 7 months ago
Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Solution: Buy your printers secondhand at yard sales using cash. Throw them away after printing your ransom notes.
WeAreAllOne@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Username checks out!
xapr@lemmy.sdf.org 7 months ago
True story: I bought my current printer from a homeless man. I had actually found the printer in a box that someone had left on the curb across the street the night before, so I knew it wasn’t stolen. I was going to take it home but was walking away from home at the time and didn’t get a chance that night. The next day I saw it with the homeless man across the street and offered to buy it.
Aeri@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Man, that makes me mildly uncomfortable, I don’t like that my printer is a spy.
NathanUp@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
I used to run a digital press that did this. It also made the print quality worse.
itsonlygeorge@reddthat.com 7 months ago
This is why they won’t let you print black and white without cyan or yellow!?
grue@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Yes, assuming your printer has a black cartridge. (Otherwise, it’s because it legitimately needs all the colors to reconstruct a shitty black – I don’t know if they still make printers like that, though.)
itsonlygeorge@reddthat.com 7 months ago
Using C,M,Y in addition to black makes “rich black” in printing applications. Without the K or black component the best you can do is a dark brown.
You don’t need to use additional colors other than K for black, but they do make it a deeper more rick black.
Really only applies when you are printing photographs or high quality images. For text, its a rip off the uses more ink.
chemicalprophet@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Outdated list.
tl;dr assume all modern printers have some form of tracking
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Hell, printers had this tech in 1990
Aurix@lemmy.world 7 months ago
But how safe from tracking would black and white lasers be? There is no evaluation at all on the chances.
dog@suppo.fi 7 months ago
Step 1. Figure out what type of pattern your printer uses.
Step 2. Introduce noise in every print that’s undetectable to the eye, but completely ruins the forensics.
Step 3. Send ransom letters.
Gooey0210@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Lemmings, try your best to answer this question, if we’re not able to print stuff privately it means we are doing everything else for nothing
LockheedTheDragon@lemmy.world 7 months ago
TU Dresden Article about it. tu-dresden.de/…/geheime-daten-auf-dem-druckpapier…
It has a link to the App that decodes, what being embedded in the print and anonymize the prints, by scrambling the yellow dot patterns. dfd.inf.tu-dresden.de
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 months ago
Can anyone list dell ones that don’t, im to lazy to read
TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee 7 months ago
No. They all do.
Zachariah@lemmy.world 7 months ago
(Added 2017) REMINDER: IT APPEARS LIKELY THAT ALL RECENT COMMERCIAL COLOR LASER PRINTERS PRINT SOME KIND OF FORENSIC TRACKING CODES, NOT NECESSARILY USING YELLOW DOTS. THIS IS TRUE WHETHER OR NOT THOSE CODES ARE VISIBLE TO THE EYE AND WHETHER OR NOT THE PRINTER MODELS ARE LISTED HERE. THIS ALSO INCLUDES THE PRINTERS THAT ARE LISTED HERE AS NOT PRODUCING YELLOW DOTS.
This list is no longer being updated.
Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 7 months ago
THANK YOU FOR THE YELLING OF THIS INFORMATION. I CLEARLY WOULD HAVE OVERLOOKED IT LIKE FAINT YELLOW DOTS BUT YOUR CAPS HAVE HELPED ME BETTER APPRECIATE THE CONTENT.
tal@lemmy.today 7 months ago
Tʜᴇ ᴄᴏᴏʟ ᴋɪᴅs ᴜsᴇ sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘs.
Zachariah@lemmy.world 7 months ago
It’s was a copy-and-paste from the website, and I fixed it within a minute of commenting. Crazy that you caught it in time.