Printer Tracking Dots

It isn't all that crazy, it has already been done to printers:http://www.pcworld.com/article/229647/counterfeit_money_on_c...https://www.eff.org/issues/printers

Doesn't that reveal the serial numbers of the printers they use?

Black & white printers cannot implement the yellow dots at least and even with color printers it is not literally every one of them.Adding tracking information, while it shouldn't be happening, is also many steps away from e.g. the printer analyzing everything you print and reporting to the government if it is something unapproved.

This could all be deflection. All name-brand printers (in the US at least and probably everywhere) watermark printed pages with yellow dots that identify the printer serial number. If the printer is purchased with a credit card and the SN is scanned, there is a perfect trail from your printed page to the person who bought it. I suspect if that method was used they still may want to claim these other fingerprinting methods to avoid spreading the word about printers.

Most scanners and printers have counterfeiting built in at a firmware level. On some machines it will even brick the hardware if triggered.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but won't this still print your printer's unique stenography sig? Just "invisibly?"

You mean like how it's done with printers? https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d...

If it's printed, the printer dots will expose some evidence too. It sounds like an ideal use case for an app, if it doesn't exist already.

Always doubt your anonymity. Many color laser printers output hidden, self identifying serial codes.

More info:https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Identification_Code