"No law regulates what sort of documents the Secret Service or any other domestic or foreign government agency is permitted to request for identification, not to mention how such a forensics tool could be developed and implemented in printers in the first place. With no laws on the books, there's nothing to stop the privacy violations this technology enables," the EFF warns."
IS YOUR PRINTER SPYING ON YOU? ⺠http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/29/printer_spy_fears/ ⺠The Register / by John Leyden Jul 30 2005 ⺠Jul 29. Secret codes enbedded into pages printed by some colour laser printers pose a risk to personal privacy, according to the Electronic Frontier Fundation. The US privacy group warns the ap-proach - ostensibly only designed to identify counterfeiters - has become a tool for government surveil-lance, unchecked by laws to prevent abuse. "In the current political climate, it's not hard to imagine the government using the ability to determine who may have printed what document for purposes other than identifying counterfeiters," the EFF said. The ACLU recently issued a report revealing that the FBI has amassed more than 1,100 pages of documents on the organization since 2001, as well as documents concerning other non-violent groups, including Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice. EFF notes that only the privacy policy of your printer manufacturers - rather than any legislative controls - stop the Secret Service from using printer codes to secretly trace the origin of non-currency documents. "No law regulates what sort of documents the Secret Service or any other domestic or foreign government agency is permitted to request for identification, not to mention how such a forensics tool could be developed and implemented in printers in the first place. With no laws on the books, there's nothing to stop the privacy violations this technology enables," the EFF warns. All this sounds like the stuff of black helicopter conspiracy theory but the EFF wants to flesh out its pre-liminary research by gathering information about what printers are revealing and how. It's asking consum-ers to get involved by sending in test sheets from colour laser printers. In addition to documenting what printers are revealing, the EFF is filing a FOIA request over the issue. These research efforts are a neces-sary precursor to any legal challenge from the EFF and ammunition for possible lobbying on legislation to protect consumer privacy. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hmtiuj4/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123449618/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
