Another shocking government trick to spy on us (Printers involved)

b/Tech, Science & IT publicado por u/DarkestEx April 28, 2015, 11:04:49 PM

Another shocking government trick to spy on us (Printers involved)

Hey together,
having read the articles online regarding the yellow dots on printed pages, I can only say one thing:

Warning: Swearing

THE F*CKING US-GOVERNMENT SUCKS WITH ITS CONTROL-FREAKING AND SPYING!

They read out mails, record our traffic, spy with satellites, track our mobiles, record our calls and they track our printed pages!

But I think this whole thing just goes to far!

These dots contain a unique signature of the printer (serial number, date of manufacture, maybe the date of first use too). Also do they maybe contain the date and time of the print. They are arranged in a binary format which is probably encrypted. Also Xerox has stated that these dots are real.

I could prove, that these dots are real by printing out a text document and you can actually spot these tiny yellow dots near the edges of the black text (in the white areas). They are aligned and they don't look like they are a bug in the firmware or a defect. (Although I deem this whole thing a defect).

What do you think about total surveillance?

Here's an image of the dots:

Here are some interesting links:
https://www.eff.org/wp/investigating-machine-identification-code-technology-color-laser-printers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_steganography

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u/Snektron April 28, 2015, 11:06:48 PM

I can assure you it's not ony the US govt. They are the only oned unprofessional enough to get caught

u/DarkestEx April 28, 2015, 11:08:14 PM

Quote from: Cumred_Snektron on April 28, 2015, 11:06:48 PM
I can assure you it's not ony the US govt. They are the only oned unprofessional enough to get caught

Yeah, I know. But what makes me angry is that even here in germany I am not safe from their spying!
Not that I have anything to hide, but I hate surveillance!

u/Snektron April 28, 2015, 11:13:41 PM

Personally i don't mind the govt getting all our personal details... But i do expect them to not be thrown around every street corner

u/Dream of Omnimaga April 28, 2015, 11:48:41 PM

Sadly we can't do much about it and I fear that in a decade or so, while most countries will probably still allow everyone to browse every website, we will be heavily watched and more than we do now. I don't care if the government gets my personal details because they already have them for when I do my taxes, but I certainly don't want them to land in the hands of every government employee and stuff like that, even less so in what I print or save.

The worst part IMHO is how the US government does it without our consent, same for other governments. If they start doing this, then what else will they start doing in the future? Will we have the police knock on our door 30 minutes after we downloaded a NES ROM? I know that we should not do illegal stuff and some people will argue that if we don't want to be spied on then we have something to hide, but the fact they are doing it like this is alarming for our future.

u/DarkestEx May 16, 2015, 05:13:23 PM

You're so right, @DJ Omnimaga
Also they're breaking their own basic law with it. At least here in Germany...

u/Dream of Omnimaga May 16, 2015, 05:46:52 PM

Apparently they passed a law a few weeks ago that would have the NSA stop listening to calls, but I am betting they did it just so we don't worry about our privacy as much, only to start spying again after gaining people's trust.

u/alexgt May 16, 2015, 10:27:58 PM

Next it will be calculators if not so already

u/bb010g May 16, 2015, 11:01:05 PM

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on May 16, 2015, 05:46:52 PM
Apparently they passed a law a few weeks ago that would have the NSA stop listening to calls, but I am betting they did it just so we don't worry about our privacy as much, only to start spying again after gaining people's trust.

Hopefully the PATRIOT Act won't get renewed either. It's hard to spy without funding. Go Rand Paul! He's planning to filibuster the vote at least. "Rand Paul 2016: Not as crazy as Ron Paul."

u/CKH4 May 17, 2015, 12:04:28 AM

Quote from: bb010g on May 16, 2015, 11:01:05 PM
Go Rand Paul! He's planning to filibuster the vote at least. "Rand Paul 2016: Not as crazy as Ron Paul."

Not what I want because as much as I don't think Hillary will do a good job I've heard he's a nut.

u/Dream of Omnimaga May 18, 2015, 03:11:24 AM

Quote from: alexgt on May 16, 2015, 10:27:58 PM
Next it will be calculators if not so already

I wouldn't be surprised if this was attempted, but again would companies be willing to spend extra money for the hardware required for keylogging and transmitting info to US government? Unless of course the govt themselves provided the money for it.

The closest I think to this that will happen with calcs is attempts at controlling what we can put on them and what calc we can use, such as in France starting in 2018.

u/alexgt May 18, 2015, 03:43:30 AM

Well with software that links your calc to your computer they could even see what you put on it if they could see into your stuff *creeped out*

u/bb010g May 18, 2015, 04:17:35 AM

Quote from: CKH4 on May 17, 2015, 12:04:28 AM
Quote from: bb010g on May 16, 2015, 11:01:05 PM
Go Rand Paul! He's planning to filibuster the vote at least. "Rand Paul 2016: Not as crazy as Ron Paul."
Not what I want because as much as I don't think Hillary will do a good job I've heard he's a nut.

Less of a nut than others IMHO. He seems to understand net neutrality at least, which is unfortunately rare in politics. I think most politicians have been called nuts many times throughout their careers. ;)

u/Dream of Omnimaga May 18, 2015, 04:38:02 AM

I tend to not get my hopes up with governments regardless of who gets elected. The Quebec government we got now held their promise of cleaning up finances, but the problem is that they are still letting some public employees getting overpaid and getting insane resignation bonuses (often more than three times the prime minister salary) and they are cutting services too much. Then because of this I bet they won't be elected again and then the new government will mess everything up again, like usual, only to be replaced a few years later.

Yay politics?