Good, that means we can encourage attention to the principle of the
matter, and not have to worry about all the practical considerations.
The principle of the matter is that it is a corrupt practice, if not
specifically admited in the documentation and sales material.
Each principle we can uphold let's us pay more attention to the next one.
A.
On Thu, 11 Feb 2021, Stuart Longland wrote:
> On 11/2/21 2:52 am, ropers wrote:
> > Printer steganography is the kind of chain most people will only
> > notice once they move and start exercising their rights. If you're
> > only free because you don't dissent, you're not free.
>
> The thing is? the printer is an electro-*mechanical* device.
>
> There's backlash, there's timing glitches. Even *without* deliberate
> "steganography" (are Stegosauruses involved?), your print-out will have
> unique flaws in it, that will "fingerprint" your printer as having made it.
>
> Maybe because the carriage belt has some backlash (or position sensing
> is a bit off), the printer "staircases" (a problem that can exist in
> dot-matrix or inkjet printers).
>
> Maybe a hammer or jet is dead leading to a dead "pixel" at regular
> intervals.
>
> Maybe the imaging drum on your laser has an imperfection that means it
> attracts proportionately more or less toner at a certain spot than other
> areas of the drum.
>
> Maybe the MCU controlling the laser is a bit jittery and so doesn't
> quite hit the target right every time.
>
> These are real-world devices, with real-world tolerances, and real-world
> imperfections. If someone wants to track you, they will, stenography or
> not.
> --
> Stuart Longland (aka Redhatter, VK4MSL)
>
> I haven't lost my mind...
> ...it's backed up on a tape somewhere.
>
>
