Printers traceable - the names of companies that collaborate with the U.S. government

The U.S. government has set up years ago, a "secret pact" with some color laser printer manufacturers to provide traceability of the equipment. The agreement is a matter of public knowledge at least since 2005, when a team of researchers has succeeded in breaking the code of the mysterious micro-yellow dots that appeared in the documents of some printers.

These patterns not only concealed the date and time of printing, but also the serial printer. What was not known with certainty, however, was which company had in fact agreed to participate in this program identifying documents.

The list of manufacturers was announced a few days ago its not Wikileaks or other organization championing of freedom of information, but a simple citizen who had made ​​a request through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). That is a legal instrument that allows each individual to request information and documents to the U.S. Government, provided of course that are not covered by secrecy or privacy laws.

The answer came to her home in a letter sent directly from the Department of Homeland Security and Intelligence Service of the United States of America. Not bad. If you really want to do something really fishy (joking of course), stay away from color laser printers of these brands: Canon, Brother, Casio, HP, Konia Minolta, Mita, Ricoh, Sharp and Xerox.