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586 points prawn | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.801s | source
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schoen ◴[] No.14502425[source]
I wrote this article/originally created this list, and I would like to emphasize that there is a second generation of this technology that probably uses dithering parameters or something of that sort, and that does not produce visible dots but still creates a tracking code. We don't know the details but we do know that some companies told governments that they were going to do this, and that some newer printers from companies that the government agencies said were onboard with forensic marking no longer print yellow dots.

That makes me think that it may have been a mistake to create this list in the first place, because the main practical use of the list would be to help people buy color laser printers that don't do forensic tracking, yet it's not clear that any such printers are actually commercially available.

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4684499 ◴[] No.14505539[source]
Is there a notice/agreement tells customers there are tracking dots before buying? If there isn't, how is this not illegal?
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1. matthewmacleod ◴[] No.14506176[source]
It's hard to imagine what law this would break.
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2. 1001101 ◴[] No.14506692[source]
By the same token, what is compelling them to do this? A sense of patriotic duty? The kindness of their hearts?

There's a lot of work that would go into designing, implementing, and testing this. Then you've got logistics in manufacturing. That's time and money.

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3. gumby ◴[] No.14507144[source]
> By the same token, what is compelling them to do this? A sense of patriotic duty?

The GSA Schedules: https://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/197989

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4. schoen ◴[] No.14508379{3}[source]
The original motivation seems to have been a deal between a printer industry association and a central banks' association, perhaps as an alternative to threatened legislation, although we've never been able to get ahold of the details of that deal.