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I vaguely recall some secretive company (perhaps Apple) using adjustment of spacing, capitalization, etc. to encode a unique serial number in messages sent by t
by sgerenser 4y ago
I vaguely recall some secretive company (perhaps Apple) using adjustment of spacing, capitalization, etc. to encode a unique serial number in messages sent by the CEO, which could then be used to trace leaks.
- joaonmatos 4y agoElon Musk was the one claiming to do it
- mattkrause 4y agoMany people claim to do it. It's a plot point in a Patriot Games, a 1987 Tom Clancy novel that introduced the term "canary trap" for this trick. He says he invented the term, but not the technique, which was already in use. In a spat over the plot of Star Trek III (so, early 1980s), Harve Bennett distributed slightly different versions of the script, allowing him to track a leak back to Gene Roddenberry. The book SpyCatcher says it was in routine use at MI-5, and you can find variations of it in lots of fiction too.
- vlunkr 4y agoGenius.com hid the message “red-handed” in Morse code using alternating quote characters to prove that Google was displaying their lyrics.
- xen2xen1 4y agoCIA and similar have been doing that for something like 50 years. Made it into Tom Clancy novels in the 80s IIRC.