Printer Microdots: security or risk?

Rob Updegrove (GHoosdum)

July 14, 2008 3:24 PM ET in News, , ,

Security microdots, the microscopic patterns produced by some color laser printers to identify the serial number, have been called out by civil liberties activists as a privacy threat.

The intent of the microdots is to allow a printout to be tracked back to the source printer, and therefore manufacturer and point of sale, to aid the Secret Service in solving counterfeiting crimes. Modern color laser printers are capable of producing extremely convincing fake currency, and the microdots, which show up under special lighting, call out a counterfeit immediately and contain information on the printer that created it.

Privacy activists are warning that the widespread affordability of color laser printers and the proliferation of microdot technology is opening the door to Big Brother keeping an eye on you through what you’re printing.

Overreaction or valid concern? I suppose that’s something we’ll find out soon enough.

Source.

12 Comments:

  1. jared
    14 Jul '08, 7:30 pm

    I guess I can understand the privacy fanatics raising hell.

    However, I don't plan on printing any counterfeit bills or death threats from my printer so right now my "care meter" is still pretty low.

    Nice find though!

    Cheers

  2. Buddy J
    14 Jul '08, 7:42 pm

    Buy your laser printer with cash in the winter when wearing a scarf and gloves is okay. No visible face. No fingerprints. No credit card to track. No problem.

  3. mertesn
    14 Jul '08, 10:27 pm

    Let's not forget our tin foil hats either.

  4. Buddy J
    14 Jul '08, 10:35 pm

    Says the man who WORKS FOR THE MAN!

  5. RADA
    15 Jul '08, 2:20 pm

    No big concern here - Like jared, not in any hurry to print out fake $$$, or send my manifesto to the LA Times... so not too high on my "rights infringment" radar..

    On the other hand, I'm all for doing what we can to help combat piracy, counterfitting, and terrorism, if this helps, I say go for it...

    The ACLU and such can go pound sand... You don't shoot yourself in the foot before running a marathon...

  6. _k_
    15 Jul '08, 2:54 pm

    They are using the money as a means, you don't give them what you don't have too. I haven't heard of anyone printing off their own money in a years.

  7. RADA
    15 Jul '08, 3:17 pm
    Quoting _k_

    They are using the money as a means, you don't give them what you don't have too. I haven't heard of anyone printing off their own money in a years.

    Actually, counterfeiting (of money) has been on a steady rise for years.

    I've got an ex-Air Force cop friend that now works for the Treasury. All he investigates is counterfeit cases, and he's VERY busy...

    You also have to realize its always in any goverment's best interest to limit the attention counterfeiting gets. If the news/media starts reporting all the counterfeiting attempts, it can destabilize the trust citizens, and other governments have is a country's monetary systems.

  8. NiGHTS
    15 Jul '08, 3:47 pm

    in B4 arrest the FED

  9. Black Hawk
    15 Jul '08, 4:00 pm

    I'm more worried with the "if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry" mentality that is so widespread.

  10. RADA
    15 Jul '08, 5:03 pm
    Quoting Black Hawk

    I'm more worried with the "if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry" mentality that is so widespread.

    I understand where your coming from here, I really do...

    .. but right now I'm more worried about taxes, gas prices, selling a home, buying a new home, selling a car we don't need, etc, etc, etc, etc.....

    For now, if there's a way the government can track all the worksheets my wife prints out for her classes (she's a teacher) on our printer, so be it.. I willfully give up that tiny iota of my anonymity..

    ..heck maybe we can write off all the copies on our taxes and use the Bureau of Homeland Security as a witness if we get audited......

  11. Scary Larrry
    18 Jan '09, 5:17 am

    Scary! It's true! I just went over some color laser prints I made with a blue led light, and there was a repeated pattern of tiny dots all across the page. How these dots translate into a printer's serial number is beyond me, unless some special scanner reads the codes. I checked on color inkjet and b&w laser printers, but no dots. Appears to be just on color laser printers for now.

  12. DrLiam
    19 Jan '09, 6:58 am

    Making more Secure money that can't be copied by laser printers could be a more viable solution.

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