Secret tracking on colour printouts

ZDNet reports that a consumer privacy organisation called the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has found that some colour printers have been secretly inserting tiny coloured tracking dots into printed documents.

The EFF said it had cracked the code used in a line of Xerox printers, and found it to contain the serial number of the printer as well as the date and time a document was printed.

According to the report by the EFF`s Seth Schoen, the US Secret Service has admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with selected colour laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters. However, the nature of the private information encoded in each document was not previously known.

The EFF has published a list of the printers that it has tested so far.

Nintendo has signed an agreement with Wi-Fi provider Wayport to install high-speed Internet access to public locations, including 6 000 McDonalds restaurants in the US.

Technewsworld reports that the aim of the move is to extend Wi-Fi to Nintendo DS users.

The Pacific island nation of Samoa is looking to the Internet as a way of developing its economy reports The Seoul Times.

Samoa has recently become one of the first island nations in the Pacific to adopt a national ICT strategy. This is a key component to unlocking overseas aid to pay for computer training, rural telecentres and e-government projects. Less than 2% of the Samoan population ever use the Internet but the government plans a major drive to promote online access for all.

"Samoa is very isolated from the rest of the world," says Fuatai Purcell, secretary of the National ICT Steering Committee. "It takes four hours to fly to New Zealand, the nearest developed country. ICT will reduce the barriers of distance for us" he says.

The UNDP has already pledged US$400 000 towards the development of the project.