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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

>From Caspian's newsletter:

 We learned last week that Lexmark printers spy on their owners by phoning
home printer usage details to the company. Now it turns out that Lexmark
isn't the only printer company finking on its customers; several brands of
laser printers have been secretly encoding the printers' serial numbers on
printouts. A series of tiny dots function as a "license plate" that can be
used to track printouts to the machine that made them. If you filled out a
warranty card (something you should NEVER do!), the company can look up your
printer's unique "signature" and share your identity with government
investigators.

If you buy a printer, don't register it, and consider more anonymous means
of getting one. eBay, local small computer stores, especially ones that
refurbish used equipment, and similar private sales make it less likely your
printed pages will rat on you.

Source: PC World via Yahoo News
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1093&e=4&u=/pcworld/
20041122/tc_pcworld/118664 (paste to above line to restore link)
or: http://tinyurl.com/6kswg