San Francisco - A research team led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently broke the code behind tiny tracking dots that some color laser printers secretly hide in every document.
The U.S. Secret Service admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with selected color laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters. However, the nature of the private information encoded in each document was not previously known.

"We've found that the dots from at least one line of printers encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the serial number of the printer," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth David Schoen.

Secret Service... Okay, so I can see a reasonable use for this in terms of money-counterfeiting efforts. But all the other possible uses (like being able to track the creators of political flyers and whatnot) do raise a concern.

I have to wonder now, if I make a color copy of something that I color printed, does that nullify the dots? Hmmm.

Many Color Laser Printers Embed Code in Every Page