With the Patriot Act coming up for renewal, I’ve been obsessing a little bit about personal liberties. I’m kind of ticked off, because I know in my gut the recent London bombings are going to be enough fuel to the fire to get the Patriot Act renewed (14 of 16 provisions permanently, and the other two for 10 years!).
So any way, I ran across this article about how the FBI has convinced several makers of color laser printers to embed codes in printed documents which will identify printers… Under the guise of catching counterfeiters, they’ve made it so they can trace personal documents.
If the stink about this ever rises to public awareness, they’ll probably just say it helps them fight terrorism.
Thats a scary thought. I know people will say that if you’ve nothing to hide then you’ve nothing to be scared of. But really. Where is this leading to? Free speech? The thought police? Tis all a little too Big Brother for me.
Phil Goodacre
July 25th, 2005
Nothing to hide…
The problem with that logic is, the more intrusive the government can be, the easier it is to frame someone.
If I can get access to your printer just long enough to print out a document, that will be pretty strong evidence.
Anonymous
July 25th, 2005