If you notice some extraneous yellow dots on your next color printout, it’s not a technical defect, it’s intentional. Those dots apparently form a special tracking code which printer manufacturers, in cooperation with (or under pressure from) government officials, have designed so that investigators can identify the make and model of the printers used to create printed materials. Ostensibly to prevent counterfeiting, the tracking codes could obviously be used for many purposes well beyond that.
When I first read this, I thought it was the musings of some tech crackpot, desperately looking for a government coverup. Unfortunately, it’s not, with reputable newspapers such as the Washington Post also reporting on the codes. As can be seen from this list, provided by the EFF, you’d be somewhat hard pressed to find a color printer without the coding technology.
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