Steganographic Anti-counterfeiting ("secret") Marks
Many modern color laser printers mark printouts by a nearly invisible dot raster, for the purpose of identification.
The dots are yellow and about 0.1 mm (0.0039 in) in size, with a raster of about 1 mm (0.039 in) This is purportedly the result of a deal between the U.S. government and printer manufacturers to help track counterfeiters.
The dots encode data such as printing date, time, and printer serial number in binary-coded decimal on every sheet of paper printed, which allows pieces of paper to be traced by the manufacturer to identify the place of purchase, and sometimes the buyer.
Digital rights advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation are concerned about this erosion of the privacy and anonymity of those who print.
Read more about this topic: Laser Printing
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