3 ms·

I tried to photo copy a dollar bill when I was a kid on a dinky inkjet printer. It printed half way then spit out something about counterfeit prevention. I scan

I tried to photo copy a dollar bill when I was a kid on a dinky inkjet printer. It printed half way then spit out something about counterfeit prevention. I scanned the bill, printed the top half, fed the paper back in, and printed the bottom half. This can only actually stop the completely unmotivated.

overfeed 3mo ago
You managed to defeat the first layer of defense - the warning. The yellow identifying dots were present on your printed copy, should you have decided become a precocious criminal successful enough to warrant the attention of the Secret Service.
- Terr_ 3mo ago
  That leads into a great example of how most OS "telemetry" is anything but safe or innocent: 1. Your printer probably puts a secret code into everything you print (not just money-like things) with the time and a serial number of the printer. [0] 2. Windows and MacOS constantly sends the serial-numbers of your connected devices back to the mothership. [1][2] 3. So when you print out a flyer that somehow annoys the regime, they read out the serial number, then call a buddy at Microsoft/Apple. 4. Now there are thugs knocking at your door to talk about how your picture was criminally mean to Dear Leader. [0] https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d... [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12506 https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12506 [2] https://littlesnitchfirewall.com/macos-telemetry https://littlesnitchfirewall.com/macos-telemetry
  - the_lucifer 3mo ago
    Digressing a bit, the link [2] feels off to me borderline scam-like. The URL points to "littlesnitchfirewall" which is not the official link to the well known macOS firewall application: https://obdev.at/products/littlesnitch https://obdev.at/products/littlesnitch, and this doesn't seem to be affiliated with Objective development in any way. Also, the home page of that "blog" points to a 404 not found, and the footer of the blog says: "Official blog of NetworkMonitor — network monitoring and macOS privacy insights." and I can't seem to find any application made for the Mac called "NetworkMonitor".
    - Terr_ 3mo ago
      My mistake, I may have fallen for an impostor site when trying to find an approachable source, unfortunately the edit-window has closed. Originally the comment was Windows/Microsoft-centric, and then I thought I'd better broaden it so that nobody makes the mistake of thinking Apple is significantly safer.
an0malous 3mo ago
Do printers still do that? I wonder if the tracking dots are still there as well, haven’t used a printer in a while
- hyperman1 3mo ago
  I've always wondered if adding your own dots would throw it off

overfeed 3mo ago

You managed to defeat the first layer of defense - the warning. The yellow identifying dots were present on your printed copy, should you have decided become a precocious criminal successful enough to warrant the attention of the Secret Service.

Terr_ 3mo ago
That leads into a great example of how most OS "telemetry" is anything but safe or innocent: 1. Your printer probably puts a secret code into everything you print (not just money-like things) with the time and a serial number of the printer. [0] 2. Windows and MacOS constantly sends the serial-numbers of your connected devices back to the mothership. [1][2] 3. So when you print out a flyer that somehow annoys the regime, they read out the serial number, then call a buddy at Microsoft/Apple. 4. Now there are thugs knocking at your door to talk about how your picture was criminally mean to Dear Leader. [0] https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d... [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12506 https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12506 [2] https://littlesnitchfirewall.com/macos-telemetry https://littlesnitchfirewall.com/macos-telemetry
- the_lucifer 3mo ago
  Digressing a bit, the link [2] feels off to me borderline scam-like. The URL points to "littlesnitchfirewall" which is not the official link to the well known macOS firewall application: https://obdev.at/products/littlesnitch https://obdev.at/products/littlesnitch, and this doesn't seem to be affiliated with Objective development in any way. Also, the home page of that "blog" points to a 404 not found, and the footer of the blog says: "Official blog of NetworkMonitor — network monitoring and macOS privacy insights." and I can't seem to find any application made for the Mac called "NetworkMonitor".
  - Terr_ 3mo ago
    My mistake, I may have fallen for an impostor site when trying to find an approachable source, unfortunately the edit-window has closed. Originally the comment was Windows/Microsoft-centric, and then I thought I'd better broaden it so that nobody makes the mistake of thinking Apple is significantly safer.

an0malous 3mo ago

Do printers still do that? I wonder if the tracking dots are still there as well, haven’t used a printer in a while

hyperman1 3mo ago
I've always wondered if adding your own dots would throw it off