Big brother is watching....

I saw this article this morning. Made me realize, we really have no privacy

www.eff.org...

Your link/website is down.

Beause I never saw the article, I will have to assume (yeah, I know about assuming) it was the article about how all lazer printers now print an individual code (not visable to the naked eye) to track back the printed items to the exact printer that created it.
Now the "GIVEN" reason for this is to catch counterfiters of money, tickets .....
I like u fear that this will be abused by the government/others to infringe on our rights and privacy.

For those of u who did not know what "EFF.ORG" is it is the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They claim to:

"working to protect civil and free speech rights regardless of technology, educating the public about civil liberties issues related to technology, and acting as a defender of those liberties.

Just for reference, this is where I got that info-since the site appears to be down:

search.yahoo.com...

*This post edited by mrmonsoon to show website name& purpose of site.

[edit on 10/18/2005 by mrmonsoon]

I saw another article about this:

www.theinquirer.net...


It sxays the same thing, but tells how they are readinjg the information (in yellow dots).

the link that sawmaw posted got slashdotted from hundreds of thousands of people all hitting the link trying to read the story. You can see the post on slashdot here yro.slashdot.org...

I don’t think is an invasion of privacy because AFAIK there is no record of what serial # and printer goes to what person. I think its more of a reactive measure for when a counterfeiter is caught and they get the printer then they can prove that a specific printer was used in the counterfeiting.

Originally posted by warpboost
I don’t think is an invasion of privacy because AFAIK there is no record of what serial # and printer goes to what person. I think its more of a reactive measure for when a counterfeiter is caught and they get the printer then they can prove that a specific printer was used in the counterfeiting.

It might do, I bought a TV a year ago, paying cash, I must have given them my name or something becasue a couple weeks later I had some mail from the TV Licensing Authority saying I had no licence (though I was covered by my partner's) and this morning I had a letter informing me the warranty was out and I could extend it.

I also think if you send off the warranty card you usually give the serial number on there.

And anyway, none of that will matter soon because everything will be individually tagged using RFID and they will know who owns exactly what, and now they have been using this method that indentifies a printer, it will go straight back to you

[edit on 18-10-2005 by AgentSmith]

The news itself is old, what is new is that the EFF finally figured out what the dots mean and have a list of printers which use the method. Makes me want to go home right now and start picking over all my various printers to see which ones tag the stuff I print out. Just goes to show you that there are all sorts of things going on in your own computers and devices that you don't even know about.

Didn't know that as site won't respond

I had problems getting into it as well. I googled it and then found any links to it that opened.. once that was done, i moved around the site no problem

Yeah I got it, worrying stuff.

The EFF does some stupid stuff at times. What's so wrong with using an old fashioned typewriter if you're paranoid about the gov't tracing back whatever back to your printer. Counterfieting is a horrible practice that hurts everyone. This is just a stupid move on their part.(And I'm generally a supporter and donater)

[edit on 18-10-2005 by sardion2000]

Well, most of the printers on the list were color.. Most counterfiters wouldn't use a black and white laserjet. I knew when they newer laser's were coming out, and the high quality scanners, it would start this.. but i guess, i never knew..