This was reported widely across the web. Thanks to everyone who sent along an email and pointed it out.
DocuColor Tracking Dot Decoding Guide
The short version is that if you use a colour laser printer it adds to your print out a discrete serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce.
Useful if the authorities want to find where those fake fifties came from or who leaked the latest budget papers.
Kinko’s are going to be so busted. BUT seeing as how you probably paid using a credit card they will be able to find out who printed off the “Demonstrate For Civil Liberties” flyers pretty quickly.
The more worrying trend is that the governments and the printer makers made the deal and just omitted to inform us, the end user that we were all being tracked.
Black and white laser printers are looking awfully good to me.
Go read the article and slip the EFF a few bucks, preferably NOT printed on a colour laser.