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FawksyBoxes t1_j6swr92 wrote

Reply to comment by KamikazeArchon in How will AI powered deep fakes and voice mods affect the future of the criminal justice system? by originmsd

Almost all printers print an invisible to the naked eye dots that show the date time and IP of where it was printed for exactly this reason. This is why most printers require color even when printing in Black and White.

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rogert2 t1_j6t267y wrote

I find this hard to believe.

For one thing, there are very many printers out there that only print black-and-white. I happen to own one of the most popular models, which (when I bought it) was the most popular printer being bought on Amazon. It takes black toner only.

There are also many printers out there whose IP addresses are meaningless, because they're on a private network. My home printer has an IP of something like 192.168.1.4, which is what my common-as-dirt home wifi router gave it. So, it's not going to be very helpful to know the IP of the printer or even the computer that sent the print job.

Yes, there are many circumstances where these problems don't apply, and yes, there are undoubtedly people out there trying to falsify evidence who wouldn't know to take any of the simple steps necessary to defeat "hidden fingerprinting" like this. But it seems so unreliable that I would be surprised if vendors even tried.

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Ferret_Faama t1_j6uudhn wrote

Even if all of this were true it's ignoring the fact you could just spoof the time to the printer.

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