RESEARCHERS hired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) say they were able to break a code hidden in tiny tracking dots that some colour laser printers secrete in every document they print.
The U.S. Secret Service admits it struck a deal with some laser printer manufacturers to add tracking information to the printed matter. The spooks say it's a means of identifying counterfeiters.
The EEF team analysed the little yellow dots on the output from a range of printers and managed to break the code for Xerox DocuColor printers. "We found that the dots encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of the printer," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen.
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