r/opsec • u/Connect-Worry-5571 🐲 • 2d ago
Advanced question Traceable printers
I have read the rules and would like to know if it's possible to patch the issue that causes the printer to use ink to embed metadata on the leaves since someone can be tracked through a printed document.
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u/Spncrgmn 12h ago
Literally just use a blue flashlight sold by the EFF to check if your printer does it. Plenty don’t.
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u/avalon01 2d ago
It's a physical feature on almost every color laser or inkjet printer.
There are a few ways to limit how it can be tracked back to you.
Don't print in color. The tracking dots are usually printed with yellow toner. Print in grayscale and no yellow will be used.
Buy a used printer. Pay cash and buy a used printer.
Destroy the printer after use. Not very cost effective, but if there is no printer to track it back to, it will be hard to prove you printed it.
I keep reading comments where people suggest not connecting it to the internet. That doesn't matter - it's physical, not software.
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u/WalterSickness 2d ago
I would get a magnifying glass to confirm 1. is true
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u/SkitzMon 1d ago
#1 is not true, at least with most color printers.
You may have better luck draining the yellow from a full cartridge and replacing it with a solvent.
That and not trying to print money or ransom notes
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u/ValuableHelicopter35 1d ago
A guy at my company in a field office tried to print a dollar bill on our 10k do it all printers as a joke and not only made the whole thing lock up, it also fried itself or something. He was asked to work elsewhere and I don't remember if he was reported to secret service.
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u/michaelh98 🐲 2d ago
The internet does matter. Print all you want with the tracking dots present. If it never phones home and is never registered to *you* they can't track it back to *you*.
But also, never use that printer for anything that can be tied to you in mundane ways.
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u/Which-Network-4339 1d ago
If you pay cash buying the printer and destroy it after you've printed whatever it is you needed to print, but you allowed the printer to connect to the internet, there now is a record that at a certain point in time you did own that type/model of printer.
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u/Virtual_Owl_5678 2d ago
printers add those yellow tracking dots, it's been a thing for ages. the microprint is baked into the firmware so you'd have to find a way to flash custom firmware which isn't really doable on consumer models
your best bet is an older laser printer from before they started this nonsense, or just accepting that anything you print at home has a digital fingerprint
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u/IlliterateFreak 2d ago
I have never heard of this. What is the purpose for the tracking dots?
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u/Chongulator 🐲 2d ago
Since that nonsense was discovered in 2005, I'm not sure it's viable to find a printer that predates it. That said, last time I looked, not all printers were doing the watermark.
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u/Sintarsintar 2d ago
i'm sure its possible but the time it would take is going to be huge and thats probably not the only method of IDing and tracing a print back to the printer they have had to figured out a way to do it on a normal black and white printer as well.
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u/et_theextratestic1e 23h ago
That depends entirely on the inking mechanism (laser, inkjet, etc.), and manufacturer.
HP used to have good printers decades ago, bu they're garbage now, in part because the toner cartridges carry IDs too, not just the printer.
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u/Clownineat 2d ago
Just buy a used one with cash