@vkc yes. as a privacy person, our personal opinion is that you should assume all modern printers have a system of this nature, although it hasn't been a focus of active research in some years

@vkc @ozzelot I would think it has tool marks that would be identifiable but not serial numbered.

@vkc Sometimes I want to make a CUPS compatible plotter using steppers and a bic pen.

@socketwench yes!!!!!

@vkc @ozzelot You can also just use a black and white laser printer instead of a color one...

@steter @vkc @Kiloku
When I was a kid my mom was a school teacher. She made her own mimeograph gel in a cookie sheet and printed handouts and tests for her classes. I’d help her with the very laborious printing, laying one sheet of paper down at a time and gently brushing the back of the sheet with a ruler. Then you peel it off and lay it down on the ping pong table.

@ireneista @vkc hmm, I keep thinking about replacing my printer that stopped working, so I don’t have to go to the shop and spend $5 every time I need to print something, but maybe I should stick with the shop printer

(As infrequently as I need to print things I’m probably saving money anyway)

@ShadSterling @vkc the shop for sure has a record of your legal identity as well, and since nobody has figured out what data is inside the steganography, it could plausibly include a timestamp. so, it's a valid option but don't make any strong assumptions about how safe you are or aren't.

@lebout2canap I only knew about it because it came up in the context of a court case where someone had been printing and mailing threatening letters to themself.

@vkc

@vkc I was there the day Seth Schoen figured this out, at the old EFF offices on Shotwell Street in the Mission.

@pluralistic @vkc that's really cool!

@vkc
I wonder if (some) 3d printers do the same.

By the way there are way there are ways to try identify single camera sensors:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_response_non-uniformity