Hidden microdots

[Jason]

I discovered this article in Pocket about hidden microdots on printed documents which is both fascinating and a little disturbing.

Check it out first or at least the beginning that explains what the dots are and how you can find and interpret them and then come back and let me know what you think. Just so your thoughts aren't biased by my opinion before reading the article and because it's apropos, I have camouflaged the text a little. When you come back, just click and drag your mouse over it.

My take: I know that most people will say, so what? But as privacy advocate, it bothers me that everything we print is probably tagged with a date, time and the serial number of the printer. And it could have a chilling effect on potential whistle blowers.

[ssfc72]

So that's why my yellow printer cartridge is always running out, by printing all those microdots!  :-)

Sneaky stuff.  I think I already had seen this info about microdots and printer/scanners not letting you print out a copy of paper money.

Now that everyone knows about this, there won't be much point in the printer manufacturers, continuing with this sneaky practice.

[Jason]

So that's why my yellow printer cartridge is always running out, by printing all those microdots!  :-)

Sneaky stuff.  I think I already had seen this info about microdots and printer/scanners not letting you print out a copy of paper money.

Now that everyone knows about this, there won't be much point in the printer manufacturers, continuing with this sneaky practice.

Nice joke about the ink running out because of the dots! Maybe that's why the printer manufacturers were so happy to put them in!
I don't know about them stopping just because people know about it. The article is from 2 1/2 years ago I just noticed so perhaps they have stopped. Or it's just not a big deal to most people. This part was disturbing, too:

" 'Organisations such as the NSA have logs of every time something is printed, not just methods of tracking paper once printed,' he says. 'They know that people know about the yellow dots and so they don’t rely upon it for traceability.' "

Holy crap. Maybe the dots are just to distract people from this.