Most (if not all) color printer makers are printing unique tracking dots on every printed page. But some of them are transparent about it and disclose it to consumers.¹
In any case, in the mid-1980s Xerox and Canon developed the anti-consumer feature decades before it became known to the public in 2004. So certainly we can blame them for surreptitiously assaulting our privacy.
It’s the surreptitious element of this that is the most infuriating. Transparently disclosing the feature to consumers is the socially responsible approach because at least informed consumers know they are signing up for:
- reduction of print quality
- higher cost of consumables (more yellow consumption)
- loss of privacy
- inability to print a black document when yellow ink/toner is empty
Xerox and Canon should be boycotted not just for the anti-consumer feature but for concealing it.
¹ citation needed… I don’t recall where I read that some printer makers are transparent about it. I would like to know which ones are transparent just from a standpoint of knowing where the integrity is.
Update- other threads on this topic:
- (law) https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/45605675
- (asshole design) https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/45653037
- (FOSS request for circumvention) https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/45652622
printers shouldn’t even exist any more. they are so 90s. slow ass beurocrats are keeping them alive.
I can’t agree with that statement. I quite regularly use mine for all sorts of tasks, from printing out coloring pages for the kids, to templates for craft work and checklists/instructions for when I’ll be away from tech, or where a sheet of paper is just easier to use (hand covered in grease for example).
Right?
I don’t take my iPad or phone into the shop. Harder to work with, expensive and easy to break.
Works better to print out a diagram (maybe even expanded to multiple pages) and tack it up in the wall.
I bought one recently because I was tired of paying staples for occasional printouts. There are still reasons to have them.
Certain legal documents still require a “wet” signature and dont accept digital versions. Need to print, sign, mail. Pain in the ass, not my preference.
Some school work the kiddos need to do is much easier when printed out.
Some things like lists and schedules are handy to have printed and hung up.
I have had reason to print flyers in the past for neighborhood events. Expensive enough I should have bought a printer then.
Theres a few other minor reasons. I dont use it much but when I need it and didnt have it that was definitely annoying.
How do you communicate with your government? Electronically? When your gov outsources their email to Microsoft or Google and they provide no public key, and the only non-electronic means of communication is to a postal address, do you lick boots by sending data in-the-clear via the recipient’s MitM of choice?
How do you do your anonymous whistle blowing when you cannot control the recipient’s means of communication?
black and white only printers.
indeed that’s what I do. Lurch does not (b/c they are “so 90s”).
I recently had to mail a certified doc to an organization that simply can’t afford to migrate to digital - they only need these kinds of docs a few times a year.
Are you going to pay to develop the systems for them, and perform all the testing, training, and manage the backup for them?
Right. You don’t know what you’re talking about.