Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=18995 List of Printers https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots (I apologize if this is not the correct place to post this. If so, then moderators please move. Also sorry if this had been already posted, and didn't see any other thread on this)
I agree. It has all become 'old news' and people are not upset about it any more. I guess that this is one of their goal: people will just stop carrying and we will let them take control over our digital life.
Even in my own family I have stopped trying. Seriously, they just don't care at all until its too late. I have long suspected that my printer(s) were a "weak spot" in anonymity. I stopped using my family printer execpt for REAL NAME stuff over a year ago. In addition to this thread's theme, I am also concerned about internal "buffers" where stuff on the printer MOBO are secretly stored. I just assume I am good to go for REAL NAME stuff and for the other stuff I treat the printer like a traitor. I really do!! My hobby computer cannot even see the printer device on the network because its completely blocked via IP tables.
To be fair, this was quite reasonably introduced years ago in order to control banknote forgery. The real problem is that, due to the disgraceful over-reach of the security services, no reasonable person trusts any of this stuff anymore, which wastes people's valuable time mitigating against it. Printers are indeed dangerous minicomputers sitting on your internal network - and I also do not trust the drivers and little utilities they want to put on your machine either. They could easily print out a different (and virtually impossible to detect) steganographic coding pattern of your passwords, for example, who knows.
The one article I read I can't seem to locate it. But, a number of other articles say no for inkjets. So.. perhaps they don't?
This only affects laser printers. It's worth noting the warning EFF have added to the article that lists the printers that do not print the code.
I thought all the manufacturers of color lasers did so for anti-forgery reasons. I don't think injects are that much good at forgery. But it's the world we live in, that trust has been eroded in any of them.
It's a modern slant on an old idea. In the past , oppressive regimes made it a criminal offense to possess a typewriter that wasn't registered. Sample text from the machine had to be submitted to the relevant authorities.