Beware Your Trail of Digital Fingerprints

If you use word you may want to check this out.

IT hardly ranks in the annals of "gotcha!" but right-wing blogs were buzzing for at least a few days last week when an unsigned Microsoft Word document was circulated by the Democratic National Committee. The memo referred to the "anti-civil rights and anti-immigrant rulings" of Samuel A. Alito Jr., a federal appeals court judge who has been nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bush.

The stern criticisms of Judge Alito rubbed some commentators the wrong way (Chris Matthews of MSNBC called it "disgusting" last Monday). But whatever the memo's rhetorical pitch, right-leaning bloggers revealed that it contained a much more universal, if unintended, message: It pays to mind your metadata.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/business/07link.html?ex=1289019600&en=98e0af709a0795f4&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

Besides, it sucks. I've been using WordPerfect since 4.1 for DOS-easier to use, doesn't load your documents with who knows what, converts to and from other formats easily, takes less space to keep documents. I generated some forms for my wife that were 7K in size-when I converted to Word they became 15K. If I opened a 1-page .wpd in Word it would become 1 page plus about 2 inches on a second page. If I saved as .doc in WordPerfect and opened it in Word it stayed as 1 page.

He had sent a disk containing a Word file to the Wichita Police. The metadata linked the document to Dennis Rader at Chris Lutheran Church.

Pdf995 makes it easy and affordable to create professional-quality documents in the popular PDF file format. Its easy-to-use interface helps you to create PDF files by simply selecting the "print" command from any application, creating documents which can be viewed on any computer with a PDF viewer. Pdf995 supports network file saving, fast user switching on XP, Citrix/Terminal Server, custom page sizes and large format printing. Pdf995 is a printer driver that works with any Postscript to PDF converter. The pdf995 printer driver and a free Converter are available for easy download.

http://www.pdf995.com

MetaData is also embedded in digital pictures. It can be helpful in many instances (it details the exposure setting and date of photograph), but is something that we must all become aware of. In digital Pictures it also lists the Make and Model of digital cameras. The Software I use (Corel and Adobe) do NOT show the serial # (and ultimately the Owner) of the camera, but I am not absolutely sure that this info is NOT included in the metadata. Who knows what a government agency with the "RIGHT" software could tell from the Metadata?

I also remember something about Intel Processor Chips encoding data in information XMitted from individual computers.

The Patriot Act and this administration's willingness to call anyone who criticizes them a "terrorist" now has me worried.



I posted the following to this forum a few days ago and got zero responses:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=242x5983

I was recently distressed that someone was able to read encoded data that was taken from a picture that was anonymously posted to the Web. This data allowed anyone with PhotoShop to identify the camera type, settings, and date of the exposure. While the serial # (and ultimately the registration) was not available in PhotoShop, it may be available to anyone with the right software. PhotoShop admits that it displays only a portion of the available data encoded into the picture.

Some politicians have been busted by the meta-data encoded into MSWord Documents that allows anyone with the proper software to identify the origins and editors of Word documents posted to the Web.

Several years ago, I remember that Intel Processors were being manufactured with a function that would ID the individual chip (and ultimately the owner).

I have heard the stories about this function embedded into XP, but never took it seriously. I think that my computers (and my life) would be exceedingly BORING to anyone who spent 5 mins examining them.


The Patriot Act, targeting of civilians associated with "Terrorist Groups" like the Green party, the ACLU, and Amnesty International, and the keeping of "Homeland Security Files" on civilians with ANT connection to these "Terrorists Groups" now has me worried.

*What are legitimate security concerns for the near future?

*Are there filters that will AUTOMATICALLY strip ALL Meta-Data from anything that is exported or relayed from my computers?

*Is there a program that displays ALL Meta-Data encoded into a file?

*Do ANY of these concerns apply to LINUX systems?

*What is the REAL story on ID encoding on Intel CPUs and MS operating systems?

*Would using old versions of Operating Systems and Software eliminate the dangers of meta-data embedding?

There is alot of Rumor, Paranoid Fantasy, and pure BS floating around the Web. Inquiring minds want to know.

I trust the posters to this forum.

Not too well versed on metadata to help you find a way to be anonymous.

jpeg images. http://www.iconus.ch/fabien/smallimage/ for OSX

I am sure there are plenty such things on the Windows side of the isle.

Check this out http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1819331,00.html

To sum up the article, there are very small tracking dots which appear on just about anything you print. These dots when decoded will tell you the date and time the document was printed and what type of machine it was printed on, and more. It has not been proven to be incorporated on every printer but so far all of the big players have implemented this type of tracking mechanism into a lot of their printers.

I suspect every printer these days has some kind tracking mechanism.

It's pretty scary to think about what else we don't know about.

Download the program here

Learn more about the tool here:
http://www.spywareguide.com/articles/article_show.php?id=35