Be careful what you print on the office color laser...

According to the folks at PCWorld magazine, it looks like anything printed on a color laser printer can be traced back to the individual printer. Looks like we should all think twice before scanning in our butts and printing it on the office printer!

The technology works as follows: when printing, the printer embeds a serial number into the printout. This number is only visible through a magnifying glass while being shone with a LED flashlight. The pattern is repeat across the page, spaced out about once per inch.

While some may cry its an invasion of privacy, I think that's a hard argument to make. Remember, the only way for this to be used against you requires the 'invasive' party know YOUR laser printer's serial number. To me, it's more like leaving a fingerprint somewhere. If your print is on file, then you are traceable. If not, you're just some anonymous print. Just like a serial number...

Read the whole article at PCWorld.com