eff.org— Laser printers apply a code to every document that is printed allowing documents to be tracked to their source. EFF has cracked the code so you can see what exactly this info contains.
Oct 17, 2005View in Crawl 4
jasqwerty: "Never understood how useful this could possibly be???"I don't know what stores you shop at but last time I bought a printer at compusa (where america buys technology apparantly) it had the serial of the printer on the receipt! and I wasn't paying cash.... so there is one way they connect the two pieces of info. The other is the warrenty registration card which personally I never send in but you might and thats another way.
"Never understood how useful this could possibly be???So they know when it was printed and the serial of the printer."Manfacturers have all the serial numbers in their database. When they ship their printers to distributers, like Best Buy, the know which serial number goes where. When Best Buy sells you a printer they also scan the serial number.If you happen to be paying with a credit card or debit card when you buy that printer, most people do, you've just left a paper trail that will lead right to your doorstep.If you happen to use forged stuff to purchase the printer, at least they'll know which area the documents were printed from. That way they can coordinate with local police and eventually they can find you.The other possibility is that once they have the serial number from a forged document recorded it can now be used to charge crooks with even more crimes. Suppose they raid your house for whatever reason. The search warrant turns up a color laser printer. They do a search on the serial number, the FBI computer turns up the forged documents. Bingo! You now got a counterfeiting charge on your hands.The best counterfeiters use old school and expensive methods. The ones you hear about all the time, the ones that do get caught, just tried to use cheap high-tech methods which unfortunately for them leaves a mile-long paper trail.I've know about the existence of serial numbers on the documents for years. I justs didn't know how it was done. Know I know, thanks DIGG and especially EFF.
This actually doesn't sound like a very effective tool for persecution of anybody. First off, the government doesn't give a crap if "freedom loving hippes" protest. They're more worried about the thousands of death threats made to the President and ever member of Congress on a daily basis. Given today's problems with journalism and honesty it's doubtful that any so-called news report to the contrary is based in any real facts. Secondly, it is against the law to counterfit and the Fed has a legal responsibility to prevent counterfiting. Until the law is revoked they will continue to enforce it.In other words, BIG DEAL! Tell me that I'll get tossed in jail for buying a few cigars with a credit card, don't waste my time with tales of the boogey man.
"Most retail companies do NOT keep your serial number, nor ever had it to begin with. I worked for a major CE retail company for a long time. We didn't keep serial numbers of anything attached during purchases with the exception of game consoles."Bulls**t! No major CE company does this anymore. There are too many serial number scams that were done in the 90's so all the major stores are tracking serial numbers on high end items. I write software for a living and almost all of our clients use the serial number tracking in Inventory management and RMA applications.You were probably working for a mon-and-pop shop. Those are the only ones in our clients database that seem to not be using these features.We're not talking about $100 printers and the FBI won't have a 100% success ratio in finding the counterfeiters. But it's a step in the right direction and a useful tool.What bothers me the most is that corrupt people in the halls of power might use this technology to track honest people that aren't doing anything wrong. Example: You write an anonymous complaint letter to the prick in the White house. Then that prick uses the serial tracking system to find you, labels you a "terrorist", "anti-american" or some other bulls**t catch phrase and gets you thrown in jail.Now that's disturbing!
rouninOct 17, 2005
Irrational paranoia rules the day.
snipergx1Oct 17, 2005
jasqwerty: "Never understood how useful this could possibly be???"I don't know what stores you shop at but last time I bought a printer at compusa (where america buys technology apparantly) it had the serial of the printer on the receipt! and I wasn't paying cash.... so there is one way they connect the two pieces of info. The other is the warrenty registration card which personally I never send in but you might and thats another way.
bluboltOct 17, 2005
retr0spective - that was pretty much uneccesary.
zeuserOct 17, 2005
"Never understood how useful this could possibly be???So they know when it was printed and the serial of the printer."Manfacturers have all the serial numbers in their database. When they ship their printers to distributers, like Best Buy, the know which serial number goes where. When Best Buy sells you a printer they also scan the serial number.If you happen to be paying with a credit card or debit card when you buy that printer, most people do, you've just left a paper trail that will lead right to your doorstep.If you happen to use forged stuff to purchase the printer, at least they'll know which area the documents were printed from. That way they can coordinate with local police and eventually they can find you.The other possibility is that once they have the serial number from a forged document recorded it can now be used to charge crooks with even more crimes. Suppose they raid your house for whatever reason. The search warrant turns up a color laser printer. They do a search on the serial number, the FBI computer turns up the forged documents. Bingo! You now got a counterfeiting charge on your hands.The best counterfeiters use old school and expensive methods. The ones you hear about all the time, the ones that do get caught, just tried to use cheap high-tech methods which unfortunately for them leaves a mile-long paper trail.I've know about the existence of serial numbers on the documents for years. I justs didn't know how it was done. Know I know, thanks DIGG and especially EFF.
killroy1971Oct 18, 2005
This actually doesn't sound like a very effective tool for persecution of anybody. First off, the government doesn't give a crap if "freedom loving hippes" protest. They're more worried about the thousands of death threats made to the President and ever member of Congress on a daily basis. Given today's problems with journalism and honesty it's doubtful that any so-called news report to the contrary is based in any real facts. Secondly, it is against the law to counterfit and the Fed has a legal responsibility to prevent counterfiting. Until the law is revoked they will continue to enforce it.In other words, BIG DEAL! Tell me that I'll get tossed in jail for buying a few cigars with a credit card, don't waste my time with tales of the boogey man.
zeuserOct 18, 2005
"Most retail companies do NOT keep your serial number, nor ever had it to begin with. I worked for a major CE retail company for a long time. We didn't keep serial numbers of anything attached during purchases with the exception of game consoles."Bulls**t! No major CE company does this anymore. There are too many serial number scams that were done in the 90's so all the major stores are tracking serial numbers on high end items. I write software for a living and almost all of our clients use the serial number tracking in Inventory management and RMA applications.You were probably working for a mon-and-pop shop. Those are the only ones in our clients database that seem to not be using these features.We're not talking about $100 printers and the FBI won't have a 100% success ratio in finding the counterfeiters. But it's a step in the right direction and a useful tool.What bothers me the most is that corrupt people in the halls of power might use this technology to track honest people that aren't doing anything wrong. Example: You write an anonymous complaint letter to the prick in the White house. Then that prick uses the serial tracking system to find you, labels you a "terrorist", "anti-american" or some other bulls**t catch phrase and gets you thrown in jail.Now that's disturbing!
iworksOct 19, 2005
I'm going to start a company that sells yellow paper to combat this nonsense.