Secret codes in printers may allow tracking

This should be dissallowed...I bet they use it for other things and not only tracking counterfeit notes.

Arn;t current methods [of counterfeit notes] all right? [i.e UV light etc?]

Considering that most scanners these days won't let you scan in money notes - the software drivers can recognize notes somehow. I do not see why the reverse filtering would not be possible - prevent people from printing money notes. Since this is an American government thing I think they would only care about greenback type notes, makes it even easier for the filter.

What we really should be asking is whether counterfeiters are so unsophisticated that they are going to use cheap colour laser printers. It makes no sense; these printers are slow, are more expensive to operate and will produce inferior counterfeits when compared to a more traditional approach using a proper printing press.

Might make sense if they were trying to combat forgeries of things that are not produced in bulk such a drivers licenses, Id documents and such.

American government counting on the public being gullible again I think, but then I am somewhat fond of conspiracy theories. Then again perhaps they are just monumentally stupid and really think they are combating money counterfeiting.

Here is an excellent article on how they cracked the code for Xerox:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/

Yeah, I work for an office automation company and a few of our colour machines disappeared. Couple of months later the cops came, had the serial numbers of the machines and wanted to know where those machines were sold to (as they were being used to copy money, hehe). So there are algorithms and things in those machines that can tell you what serial number and manufacterer the machine comes from.

Based on the following paragraph, I doubt that the content of the article is accurate:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said its researchers recently broke the code behind the tiny tracking dots and said the US Secret Service confirmed that the tracking is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers to identify counterfeiters.

Click to expand...

Why would the Secret Service confirm anything?

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jacques

It's very much genuine I'm afraid. Cape Talk had an interview I think on Friday about this. The Xerox representative said that all their colour copiers/printers do this.

Don't know why you guys are so worried about this? Planning on printing some money?

A recent CSI episode had a similar printer in it. They didn't use it to find someone who printed money, but rather to find out who printed a specific document [or where the piece of paper came from].

So quite obviously alot of things you can do with a piece of paper with a little marker that can be traced directly to the nearest shop who sold the printer [if not directly to you].

Aparently... this technology has been around for some time... and the printer manufacturers were not allowed to notify their customers... the information was extracted only when a crime has been commited... One cant help but wonder if they were using the same technology when they confiscated Zumas Documents.... Read More...