oh YES.
Since the 1980s, Xerox and Canon made a secret deal with the US Secret Service. every color laser printer now embeds invisible yellow dots on every single page it produces. too small to see with the naked eye. they repeat up to 150 times per page so they survive cropping, damage, even shredding.
the dots encode:
— your printer's serial number
— the exact date and time of printing
— the manufacturer
no law requires manufacturers to tell you this. most printer manuals don't mention it. you almost certainly didn't know.
The first use case was counterfeiting. catching people printing fake money. reasonable.
Then, in 2017, Reality Winner printed a classified NSA document and mailed it to journalists. investigators cross-referenced the yellow dots with security footage. she was identified, arrested, and sentenced to 5 years.
because there is no law regulating who can request this information. no warrant requirement. no oversight. the EFF has been saying this since 2004 and nothing has changed.
you can check if your printer does this. the EFF maintains a list: https://t.co/mffS4X92kw
“Dad, what are you doing?”
“Getting upgrades before the con tomorrow, son.”
“Can I stay on your head?”
“No -_-”
“But it’s so comfyyyy owo"
One final night of software updates before my first proper fullsuit debut @ #lifc !!
#fursuitfriday#fursuit#protogen