Pretty clear the conspiracy theorists don't work with actual IT security, which is something I do.
All mechanical based printers leave a characteristic signature that a decent forensics team can use to trace counterfeit currency, which is the main purpose. Printers don't need to make a spacial serial number or dot pattern.
The conversation is really about if printers actively register with some external agency, and the answer is no. Even *if* this technology were implanted in printers it wouldn't work (mechanical variances in print heads due to mass chinese manufacturing would be overwhelming). Retailers (online and local) have a warehouse full of boxed printers, and consumers come in and buy them. There is nothing to trace 'X' printer to 'X' consumer other than maybe a registration card if you bother to fill it out. If a printer were to 'phone home' with it's serial number all you would have is a vague IP address on an ISP connecting it to the location and it would be easily spotted with a firewall.
Less optimistic IT security employees could be a good thing. Yes, every printer has its characteristics, that knowledge started already with handwriting, typewriters, etc. Though you still have to locate that typewriter, printer, before you can make the match. So to have a serial code hidden in the output makes that part easier. That firewall might interfere with the installation of several printer software apps including the driver so the nice advice to temp. switch the firewall off for the install is enough to make things easier for tracing that printer when the need is there. I do not mind the measures taken but wonder what the relevance of prints is nowadays.
You do not need to be a conspiracy theorist when leaks by Snowden, Assange, reveal what the reality is. If I add a nice terrorist name to this message I am sure the sieves in the USA and UK will catch this message too. The Dutch will take care of my phone calls over here. I do not even object as long as there isn't a less integer guy somewhere who has his own agenda for the data collected. Neither do I think politicians make the right decisions even when correctly informed. We have seen an odd mix of idealism and capitalistic short term thinking in Western politics and less Realpolitik, all since the iron curtain was taken down. Maybe because we then thought that our system was the best instead of making the assumption that the other system failed due to inherent flaws. This attitude did not change with 9/11, the economic crash or during the Arabic Spring and we can see the chaos it created every day now. Next evolution might be Christian extremism though I hope it will be isolationism for some time to come, Canada gives a sign of the last. Off Topic for sure but I am glad it is off my chest for this hour.
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htmDecember 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots
