Special Assignments And Investigations

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― It's a simple sheet of paper, some text, and a touch of color, but secrets lie hidden on the surface, invisible specks that hold enormous implications.

"It's not something that's sort of sunk into general public consciousness by this point," says Seth Schoen, a cyber investigator.

Schoen's base of operations is San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organization focused on privacy.

He says, "This technology seems to be the result of negotiations between the printer companies and the government which happened in a very secret and non transparent way."

To see what we're talking about, it helps to be in the dark with a little blue light.

"I can see the dots very clearly across the entire page here," says Seth, as he examines a print made on his color laser printer, up close, scanning the paper with small LED light in a darkened room.

You can see an array of what appear to be black, but are actually yellow dots. They only look black under a blue light which makes them visible to the naked eye.

One student at CSUS about the prints we show them, "…looks like they're forming something."

Another says, "it doesn't say very much."

But it says a lot. Schoen says it started with an unknown -- someone who had a thought.

"I'm going to make people's print jobs trackable and traceable, and they had to go to extra effort to take away people's privacy that way."

Schoen says the microscopic patterns are a printer's and copier's electronic finger prints. They're intentionally added to the print and reveal the exact date and time that print was made, and on which printer, using its serial number.
And that information is kept by the printer makers who got it from you when you bought it and registered it.

The company in turn gives it to the federal government whenever they ask for it. Only one printer company out of the top ten responded to our requests for information, and they declined to comment.

EFF and other researchers believe nearly all color laser printers and copiers use this spy technology, many since the mid-1980's.

The Secret Service admitted to us they have worked with other "government agencies and industry partners" on preventive "countermeasures." The technology is designed to discourage the illegal use of "printers and copiers in the production of counterfeit currency."

So it only targets criminals, right?

"I mean knowing me I wouldn't be doing any of that to do anything wrong."

But others aren't easily convinced.

"If they got that much power you're not just going to stop at counterfeiters."

The Secret Service tells us that's all it's for, but history may say otherwise.
The EFF knows of one man who called his printer maker asking how to disable the tracking feature.

"Not only did they not tell him how to turn the tracking off but they actually reported him to law enforcement," Schoen said.

Shoen says the Secret Service opened an investigation on the man but never filed charges.

"But I think its unfortunate people have a concern about privacy that might get reported to law enforcement merely for having a concern about protecting their privacy."

It sounds too much like Orwell's "Big Brother" to people around the world. More than a thousand of them have sent samples from their printers to EFF to help with their investigation. They've determined that documents are coded regardless of the country.

Alll of these volunteers are concerned about governmental secrecy personal privacy and the right to anonymous free speech.

"It's just one more way for them to keep a tab on us."

It could make people think twice before protesting with pamphlets fliers or letters -- which in turn could threaten democracy.

In a 1995 case the US Supreme Court held that "...anonymous pamphleteering ... and other printed materials ... is an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent..." and that "anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority... to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation..."

Activists may now wonder if their printer is spying on them.

"It makes me a little nervous," says Luis. He's just come from the campus copy center, a few prints in his binder - "black and white though, so maybe that's all I'll do from now on."

According to EFF there are no laws to stop the Secret Service from using printer codes to secretly trace the origin of documents that have nothing to do with currency. So, with no laws on the books, there's nothing to stop the privacy violations this technology enables -- important to know.

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