List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots

Paying cash for the printer should mitigate things. At best they can tell something like that the page was printed by something that passed through a BestBuy warehouse in your town in the first quarter of last year, and that's it.

Buy a printer hundreds of miles away from home while on a road trip, pay cash, and then do whatever you want with it: print yourself a hundred million dollars and enjoy your print-irement. :)

Simply the awareness about the possibility of tracking goes a long way.

That's all they're going to get anyway. I've never heard of a retail store recording the serial number of all their merchandise, much less associating it with a customer's credit card.

The utility to law enforcement is being able to prove a connection between the evidence and a suspect after they've obtained a warrant. Or in this case, it was a NSA owned printer so they already had the serial number without needing a warrant.

And if you are foolish enough to register with the manufacturer, the NSA already has your serial number without needing a warrant.