Bypass would be leaving your phone at home, most important step no govt approved tracking devices. Then purchase a used printer from a smaller retailer paid for in cash. The only records would be the security footage (where I work and that gets written over 3 - 4 weeks). And a receipt tied to nobody
Find a printer with USB; Use a Raspberry Pi or similar as a network print server.
Never connect the printer directly to the internet.
Not just because of government tracking, but because printer companies aren't very good at network security.
As i suggested, take a screenshot, copy to usb, connect to a blank computer non network, then print. No tell tale info, print and ditch for added security.
I learned from a coworker how this came into being. Near to where we work, on March 8, 1971, the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the Media, PA FBI office and stole over 1,000 files
These files were then leaked to the press and it is because of this action that we now know about COINTELPRO. But because these printed files did mot have the printed tracking dots on them, the FBI couldn’t locate them. From that day forward, the US Federal Government mandated that all
The dot system only happens on four color systems
The main boards serial number and the date in the machine are what go into the tag
You can reset the HP Serial Number on most Main Boards to say nearly Anything you want within reason and obviously you should only ever put a reasonable seeming number
Any blue light LED or UV lamp can help make the dot code appear visible to you, a human. If you collect fascist posters this technique can be leveraged ON YOUR behalf rather than the state's
For anyone just learning about that topic here’s a good book about it. The arc of history is long and often has impossible odds but there are always brave freedom fighters
The winner woman got caught this way in the first Trump admin because @theintercept.com published the actual document in question and the NSA tracked it to the exact printer.
They've been setting this up for decades. Israel has something called "the tool" that basically covers an individual's entire existence down to the second
Robert A. Heinlein wrote about this in 1966 in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" - though it was electric typewriters of some sort, not printers. The solution in the book was to type each line of text on a different typewriter.
wouldn't that still be an identifier? i'm not too knowledgeable about printers but not many people own dot matrix and i wouldn't be surprised if it has a unique form of printing compared to others
moreso out of curiosity than anything
Probably not intentionally, but personally I wouldn't rule out there being some form of "fingerprint" to how a given printer prints, caused by minor variations in manufacturing tolerances. Not unlike how individual manual typewriters could be identified based on how some letters were misaligned.
According to him she sent the documentd to the Intercept's New York newsroom and nobody involved seems to contradict him. I think that was just people online trying to blame him like there aren't ebough legit reasons for that.
I've know about this forever. I'm surprised no one has developed a firmware hacking tool to cut that functionality out. I'd imagine it's on the firmware side since you can print without the manufacturer software.
Wasn't this part of what screwed Reality Winner? I remember seeing something about how you should never upload a document you were sent, just photocopies or something
Yeah I think I saw someone say it was weird they didn't even upload a cleaned up copy of what she sent them because it was such a known basic thing to do.
Probably not, the dot matrix can be symmetrical. The solution here is to either find a chipless firmware seller to jailbreak your printer or to go to a printshop like Kinko's and pay in cash.
I'd go with Kinko's since even owning a printer is a bit of a scam unless you print A LOT. Hat on mask up
Ink doesn't have to be invisible to be reactive to UV. The reactive pigment can be mixed into any color as long as it doesn't get chemically altered to stop reacting to UV.
Yeah but uv reactive pigment is more expensive to manufacture because of the additive. Would any capitalist business go with the more expensive route for sake of anyone's convenience? No. It's a separate ink in a separate reservoir.
My qualifications are I'm 36 years old, I played with dot matrix printers as a child, I remember when ink jet and laser printers were introduced to the market, and I remember CNN running news stories on new counterfeit money using ink jet and laser printers in the 90s. Please shut the fuck up.
Do you keep pictures of intricate technological parts for conversations with kids whose frontal lobes aren't fully developed that want to argue shit they know exactly zero percent about that you might happen across on bluesky at 4:30am? What a stupid fuckin question.
Laser and ink jet printers use the cym or rgb colors to color correct black portions to make true black. If yellow is out, then it can't do that. It has nothing to do with these tracking dots. You can change this in your settings to circumvent that.
Yeah there could be countless other ways of encoding serial number information in the print. For all we know the requirements for some printers these days to be always online means they are tracking every file printed and scanned now.
The only printers I would say definitely aren't are good ol daisy wheel and dot matrix printers. Those are almost certainly fingerprintable by their mechanical quirks, but that can only show that two documents came from the same printer, it doesn't give you any information about where or when.
The fix is to refil it again but put tape over the holes because otherwise the ink will evaporate on you even if it is in the printer. Nothing online mentioned needing to do that
Which it will refuse to do if you have it set to color printing vs monochrome or black and white print on the software side. Color printers use some of your color pigment to color correct blacks so they're truer.
You can set it to the above to get around the default colored pigment use.
There are many anti-espionage measures involved with documents, including things like slightly altered text, making each copy uniquely marked, to identify people releasing information. Its a big risk and people should be aware of the traps. Photograph someone else's print copy and remove metadata!
They want to track everything because magic is real and they try to manipulate you with objects. When consumerism is an issue track every object take the pacifier at the right time take everything they are worth. Its how the people "get ya" conmen.
If we don't stand together as ONE VOICE...we might as well not stand at all!!! No politician (no matter how big their platform is) can save us! The ONLY way to end this is millions in the streets.
I’m curious if thermal printers don’t have the same capability. Getting massive rolls of thermal shipping labels and printing on those seem both convenient and hard to trace?
This technique (similar) is still being used. They can change the wording slightly for each person they send a comm to, embed meta data, etc. A decade ago the advice was to screenshot something to remove the meta data but there are more advanced ways to track a document now.
Also they have been making subtle changes in wording when distributing documents so if you quote verbatim it could be traced to an individual or group of people.
Five years of tumblr journalism and journal posts on FA that completely changed the sex toy industry more likely have us on some lists than print tracking.
HP is such a shit company they help you with your opsec, because if you are doing any real amount of printing with their printers, long before you are in trouble, you will have trashed it due to it breaking down.
Any idea if these dots would translate to a transparent overlay? Because if not, it's a little old-school and tedious but screen printing is a possibility.
*takes a drag off cig* (Dale Gribble voice) This is why I dip a toothbrush in a crude mixture of yellow highlighter, Mountain Dew, and alien urine, then brush every document Hank prints out before I photocopy it myself.
If the dots are yellow, just print solid yellow pages, then print on them again once they're dry. It would cost a lot more in toner, but at least the dots would just blend in.
Look up the Main Board Serial Reset procedure, in case you ever need to replace (cough cough) your main board. and set that serial back to the ORIGINAL (wink wink) serial it ALWAYS WAS BACK WHEN YOU GOT IT. Yep. Was always that one. And was always a week and 23 hours later than actual day / time.
sure, but if all you had was the duplication is there sufficient information that you could use to go to that next step (location, unique printer ID, date and time, etc)
If I remember right they're encoded as yellow dots that a duplication scanner wouldn't pick up, so it would presumably have the ID of the printing machine. Not sure if date/time info is included but location could be traced back
This all started because the fbi can track what sort of typewriter people use and since very little people use typewriters, they can narrow things down, fast. They can also trace ink from specific pens and ribbons.
it was lower tech than this, alas. (and imo the doj really played up the forensic elements of the bust to embarrass the intercept.) it was mostly just that her access + printing it were logged
Exactly. Every driver or print manager you have ever used in a corporate setting, much less government, has logged every image you sent, the PC & IP it was sent from, and the user ID sending at minimum.
I remember back in 2017/2018 Maddow had an "absolutely nuclear" scoop that couldn't be run because they couldn't verify it, and also there was something hinky about the printer dots.
"Maddow’s team were able to identify the dot pattern specific to that printer. Here’s where the story gets even more interesting. The “top secret” document received at Rachel’s website? It had the same dot pattern, remnants of the same crease at the top of the page. Most curious is the timeline."
No. These measures were first proposed to fight counterfeiting money so manufacturers made sure that these dots are still printed regardless if it's a color printer or not. This ink is uv reactive. It's not the typical ink you print with.
It's crazy that this is still obscure knowledge. My journalism instructor warned us about it way back in 1993, a full decade before it officially became publicity known.
That's what infuriated me most about Reality Winner's case: How did The Intercept just *HAND OVER* her printed docs to the NSA?
(And my journalism classes were just at a community college by an instructor who was a staff reporter at The Oregonian newspaper. So it's not like you needed to be Woodward or Bernstein to know that printed docs were traceable even back in the 90s!
Might be a coincidence, but HP Institutional Workgroup (office laser printers) were supported out of a call center in Beaverton starting in the 90s.
It wasn't terribly secret for those who worked it.
It was in the Murray Business Center through a company called Stream. Paid decently in the late 90s, then it started to go downhill. Was eventually merged / bought out by Solectron.
Eventually everyone working for HP lost their job to a call center in Newfoundland or something and we got NAFTA $
It's awful I don't remember his name because he was fantastic, but Bob Shotwell doesn't ring a bell. 😞
I *do* remember that Mike Lloyd--a photojournalist at The Oregonian--was my journalism instructor at Portland State a few years later. He was great, too.
They have a racket on tracing these things. The ideas of printing presses and mimiographs are easy to pick off, too. The ingredients to both are most likely rare or the quantities needed would be easily traceable. The tools of the state are VAAAAAST.
Fun Fact: The FBI also maintains extensive data on the characteristics of type-writers and they used this during the Red Scare to identify suspected Communists and spies.
Looks like there's software you can use that puts extra dots on that bad boy
I'm really invested in mundane technology and kinda wanna dig deeper into this, I wonder if there's ways to circumvent it all together
Just read through that, the last update from 2017 says that all laser printers should be assumed to have forensic marks on them, either yellow dots or other types.
Hank's article specifically says color laser printers have the dots, but those have a very expensive initial buy-in.
Black toner only laser printers are what I own. I'm unsure if there's no tracking or a different kind.
There was a recent scandal in the Pokemon hobby where vintage cards that were supposed to be from the '90s, worth thousands of dollars, were found to have Tracking Dots that revealed they were printed in 2024
FWIW, I've heard many Epson inkjet printers actually do this. Considering inkjet printers work by depositing typically 50 microns wide ink droplets on paper, I don't see how they wouldn't be able to do it as opposed to laser.
But whether or not it's true, it's easier to just not do it.
the key difference is that the droplets disperse and get absorbed by the paper around it which results in a bleed that make the individual droplets more easily visible. to your point though maybe Epson figured out how to make it not do that recently, who knows
No they aren't lol. I'm not saying there isn't some other id scheme that we don't know about but every printer known to use MIC is a laser printer bc that's how the tech works
Nah you’re right I think. A lot of inkjets can do 6-900 DPI but I cannot find any definitive information on inkjets using MIC. I was confidently wrong lmao
it's possible, but people shouldn't be looking for the telltale yellow dots like laser printers use because inkjets aren't capable of printing the MIC dots small enough for you to not physically be able to see them like with lasers
I once heard that the only legal printer brands in the US are Brother, HP, Epsilon, and Canon because they all have to comply with US regulations regarding these dots, and that the technology is proprietary but shared between these 4. No idea how true it is, but it seems real enough.
Not sure what that has to do with what I asked. Making something for yourself from scratch isn't illegal unless it's some kinda weapon or vehicle that needs to meet regulations to be street legal (and the latter seems unenfirced for big companies like Tesla).
It would be illegal because you aren't complying with the printer regulations. I honestly have no idea if it extends to personal, private usage or if it strictly targets sellers. And again, I heard this one time years ago lol
I just did some digging and it looks like the printer head and software/firmware are actually the bottleneck, not dots regulations. You'd be buying a name-brand printer head and you'd have to build your own software.
I was recently wondering why open source printer firmware isn't more popular. Is it because printers are awful and the kinds of people who can hack firmware know to avoid the ones that would need it?
Printers are awful and the languages that computers use to communicate with them (e.g. PostScript) are even worse. It isn't a simple matter of just sending raw pixel data to them.
My guess is it would likely have to be custom made for each printer. It also would need to bypass any protections they put in place to prevent such operations such as lockput chips and whatnot. But yes, in theory it could exist.
Sure hope nobody ever drives far from their home and buys a printer at a garage sale for cash and never hooks it up to the internet and unfortunately it breaks and has to be thrown away also not at home
yeah it is an old standard from when printers got available to the everyday person...
the original concern was for counterfeits, mainly money. yeah total bullshit...
anyway this was used recently to uncover some huge scams related to prototype cards for TCGs which went for lots of money
Since we can not know for sure how the newer forensic tracking systems work perhaps the better choice is to somehow acquire a printer in a way that breaks that chain;
For example, what if we order the printer via uber from bestbuy to a public location using a burner phone and .... fuck
If you buy in cash, there’s no electronic record from a bank or a credit card company of you buying the printer. As long as you don’t register the printer, I don’t think they can find out who you are, or at least it would be harder for them to do so.
if the printer cant be tied to ur name it doesnt help find u rite? otoh i guess it can associate multiple documents which might help track u down in conjunction w other methods
The printer has a unique ID tied to it. Modern printers will snitch this along with your IP. They will find you.
The older printer the better and print air gapped always. If the printer driver doesnt snitch you out Windows will. Old dot matrix ones often use a still made cartridge, should be safer.
Comments
Never connect the printer directly to the internet.
Not just because of government tracking, but because printer companies aren't very good at network security.
I still use a Laserjet 5L with an Ethernet dongle plugged into the back of it.
It’s why your yellow cartridge goes faster than cyan or red.
Even on a black or greyscale page.
The main boards serial number and the date in the machine are what go into the tag
You can reset the HP Serial Number on most Main Boards to say nearly Anything you want within reason and obviously you should only ever put a reasonable seeming number
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph
It's a book worth reading in this era.
moreso out of curiosity than anything
#MARCHintosh #GlobalTalk
I'd go with Kinko's since even owning a printer is a bit of a scam unless you print A LOT. Hat on mask up
The dots are printed with uv reactive ink. It's not the yellow your printer uses to print documents.
It'll refuse to print because your black is out already and it can't make more with the colors.
Mine is like that and when I messed up refiling the ink it had no issue printing a black and white shipping label as pure red.
I still haven't fixed the yellow and blue inks. I only fixed black because i need it
Otherwise it'd only be the case with yellow, not cyan and magenta.
You can set it to the above to get around the default colored pigment use.
oh right not public
lolol
ancient tractor feed okidata.
Whos laughing now?
No seriously, I can't hear anything over how loud this dot matrix head is.
If we don't stand together as ONE VOICE...we might as well not stand at all!!! No politician (no matter how big their platform is) can save us! The ONLY way to end this is millions in the streets.
https://handsoff2025.com
A bit like bullet scratch linking a bullet to its cannon.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/276918718595?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1hKczA8B7QtW0VqOCcH3K2w42&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=276918718595&targetid=2320093655185&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9031632&poi=&campaignid=21222258394&mkgroupid=164713660992&rlsatarget=pla-2320093655185&abcId=9408285&merchantid=100507118&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhYS_BhD2ARIsAJTMMQZ4s4ZZ8QUDRe_qq5BeSbfrjAhBfm0xSigeHsImRFhehf9AmZGQgA0aAl73EALw_wcB
All you need is some jello
https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots
You can only get black and white.
Still remember having a BJ10ex printer mid 90s.
Purportedly to help investigate printing of counterfeit money and other official documents.
But why would they need to use those when they can just search your email and computer directly for the original doc?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZX8OaZZDlM8
1. print to pdf in b&w
2. edit pdf to change black to a readable shade of cyan or magenta
3. keep printing without black ink 😀
summoning @alt-text.bsky.social
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Winner
That's what infuriated me most about Reality Winner's case: How did The Intercept just *HAND OVER* her printed docs to the NSA?
Ugh, I'm mad at The Intercept all over again. 😡)
It wasn't terribly secret for those who worked it.
I bet the call center was on the Tektronix campus, which is where virtually all my friends' parents worked when I was a kid.
Eventually everyone working for HP lost their job to a call center in Newfoundland or something and we got NAFTA $
I *do* remember that Mike Lloyd--a photojournalist at The Oregonian--was my journalism instructor at Portland State a few years later. He was great, too.
@juddlegum.bsky.social
Trust no machine!
https://bsky.app/profile/nitrofox.bsky.social/post/3ll432ztl2k2r
I thought this was common knowledge at this point.
Pfffft... Lol
It was a floppy disc.
Pfffft... Lol
I'm really invested in mundane technology and kinda wanna dig deeper into this, I wonder if there's ways to circumvent it all together
This is the best I found.
Black toner only laser printers are what I own. I'm unsure if there's no tracking or a different kind.
There was a recent scandal in the Pokemon hobby where vintage cards that were supposed to be from the '90s, worth thousands of dollars, were found to have Tracking Dots that revealed they were printed in 2024
Even had the printer's serial number
https://www.elitefourum.com/t/many-of-the-pokemon-playtest-cards-were-likely-printed-in-2024/52421/1
They tried doing it to Maddow, too, but her team caught the yellow dots and were able to see where the documents came from.
https://youtu.be/oO9NvXNdA20?si=olzTfAg1CfG4wlR7
this only works with laser printers due to how they deposit the ink
But whether or not it's true, it's easier to just not do it.
https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots
Of course color prints have them.
https://github.com/hzeller/ldgraphy
https://reprap.org/wiki/Inkshield
https://hackaday.io/project/167446-diy-inkjet-printer
They are required for many industrial applications.
Especially when making instant carbon copies, where you need to "hit" the paper to make it work.
I hope they're still obnoxious
If you do online retail or home publishing, I highly recommend them, what you lose in upfront cost, you make back in extremely low operating costs.
the original concern was for counterfeits, mainly money. yeah total bullshit...
anyway this was used recently to uncover some huge scams related to prototype cards for TCGs which went for lots of money
For example, what if we order the printer via uber from bestbuy to a public location using a burner phone and .... fuck
https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots
Can't tell if you're joking
There's an idea called entropy in information theory. You'll sometimes see the idea that you only need 33 "bits" of entropy to ID someone.
And counter arguments:
https://itif.org/publications/2011/03/23/33-bits-nonsense/
At the end of the day, lots of tiny details are useful. e.g. maybe it just indicates what city you're in.
You gotta figure out who wants to get you, and how badly.
Easier to just buy one that doesn't have it.
The older printer the better and print air gapped always. If the printer driver doesnt snitch you out Windows will. Old dot matrix ones often use a still made cartridge, should be safer.
i think you mean Reality Winner, who got snitched out when The Intercept scanned instead of transcribing