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Kim Komando Daily Tech Update

Your printer is snitching on you

03 Feb 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 21.955 Kim Commando

Hi, Kim Commando here. Well, first up, we have your digital life hack. And after that, I'm going to play a call from my weekend national radio show. Every document you print has a secret code on it, and it traces right back to you. I'm Kim Commando for Carbonite, my number one choice for cloud backup. Get 50% off at carbonite.com slash Kim. Live a better digital life with Carbonite.

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Chapter 2: What secret code is embedded in every printed document?

21.935 - 42.38 Kim Commando

Most color printers add tiny yellow dots to every single page. They're nearly invisible. You can't see them unless you know where to look. Those dots contain your printer's serial number, plus the date and time you printed the document. Law enforcement has used this for years to track down counterfeiters, leakers, and even the person who leaked NSA documents back in 2017.

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42.681 - 62.39 Kim Commando

They match the yellow dots to a printer. Want to see them? Print a page with some color on it. Shine a blue LED light on it in a dark room. And there they are, tiny yellow dots in a pattern. Not every printer does this, but most major brands do. HP, Canon, Xerox, Brother, there is no way to turn them off. So remember, your printer is keeping receipts.

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62.411 - 73.187 Kim Commando

Join almost a million folks who get my free newsletter every single day. It's five-star rated at GetKim.com. Next up, a call from my weekend show, The Kim Commando Show. Enjoy!

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73.167 - 102.244 Rod

uh rod in los angeles california hi there rod hi what a great crew you have the energy they put out for you here it's good awesome appreciate that rod what's on your mind today yeah i uh listen to you every weekend i download the you know the shows and i've heard you talk a couple of times about when you had the guys planting cameras out in front of your house oh yeah How to pick that up.

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102.344 - 128.816 Rod

And it's not paranoia for me, but it is in a way it's sort of like having this simple and safe system. I live in an area where I've got a lot of brush and stuff out front and across the street. There are frequently vendors there and a lot of people around. And I've seen enough of this in L.A. where they sort of hit a, you know, a community area. And, again, it's like having a security system.

129.116 - 137.669 Rod

I'd like to be able to RS. You talked about the protectors, you know, how you can, there are some devices that will pick that up.

Chapter 3: How do law enforcement agencies use printer codes for tracking?

137.969 - 142.015 Rod

And I'd like to be able to have one so that I can, again, screen it.

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143.117 - 156.617 Kim Commando

So you want to, are you afraid that somebody is going to come into your neighborhood and and then jam all the Wi-Fi signals so that this way your security system doesn't work?

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156.637 - 168.795 Rod

Yeah, that's correct. Or they can just be doing surveillance and see what I do, and then when I'm gone, come in, because these guys have gangs periodically that come through and they'll hit houses.

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168.815 - 192.038 Kim Commando

And I'll tell you, these Wi-Fi jammers, I saw one in action last week. I never had seen, and as you talked about, Rod, I mean, my house got hit by the Chilean gangs and the videos up on YouTube. Yeah, I remember. Yes. And I mean, I'm like sitting there on the patio like, hi guys, we're the Phoenix SWAT team. What's going on?

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Chapter 4: What steps can you take to reveal the hidden dots in your prints?

192.018 - 210.824 Kim Commando

They're like, get in the house, get in the house. All these helicopters around like, hey, you want to come for dinner? You guys need water or anything? Anyway, so the Chilean gangs used the Wi-Fi jammers to try to break into our house because they thought maybe we had gone to dinner. but they couldn't because the house was hardwired.

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211.504 - 235.727 Kim Commando

So last week I had the opportunity where somebody showed me the wifi jammers. It's about the size of a deck of cards and he got it off of a website in China, took about three months to get over here. It has two buttons and you press button number one

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Chapter 5: Which major printer brands use the secret coding system?

235.825 - 253.834 Kim Commando

And it takes down all the Wi-Fi within probably, I don't know how many feet, and it keeps the Wi-Fi down for 16 to 18 minutes. I mean, that one button. And I said, what does button number two do? And he goes, well, that's Wi-Fi end cell.

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253.814 - 269.511 Kim Commando

oh okay and buzz out button number two will take all your wi-fi and your cell out for 16 to 18 minutes so if somebody's trying to break in you're a sitting duck well he wants to jam the jammers though he wants to get ahead of the game

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269.491 - 282.678 Rod

Well, I want to be able to pick up that they've got something planted around that potentially maybe even just the cameras. You know, again, I don't know all the technology, but I'd like to if there was something available.

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282.698 - 289.812 Kim Commando

They're not going to they're not going to plant a camera, so to speak. You know, they might actually let me back up. They might want to plant a camera there.

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289.792 - 309.083 Kim Commando

and that's where you know and it's running off of a cell signal weren't they taping like cameras gopros or rocks they're for rocks and everything that's where you know you can and they they get the s they would take the sd card out and then try to you know figure out your routines and all that other good things bad things so to speak

309.063 - 330.126 Kim Commando

You know, there are ways, there are devices that you can use that will detect the cameras, but they're not always 100% accurate. I mean, it kind of, and I wish there was just like one solution, like, okay, yeah, we're going to buy this to see if they're actually here. You know, it goes back to really having a hard line in your house.

330.106 - 350.684 Kim Commando

I mean, having the internet connected through a hard line that's accessible to you 24 seven, so that when the jammers happen, because let me tell you, when he hit that button, number one, It just, it was boom, gone. It wasn't like needed to like connect to anything, okay? It was, you're out of business.

351.265 - 380.787 Kim Commando

And 16 to 18 minutes later, so 20 minutes later, it came back up and then I said, let me see number two. Number two, boom, my phone's dead. All the wifi dead for another 16 to 18 minutes. Highly illegal. Highly illegal. That's why I don't want to tell you who it was that came over to show this to me. But if you are concerned about your safety and security, that's where it really boils down to.

380.947 - 409.82 Kim Commando

Getting rid of that brush in your house, putting up signs, believe it or not, guard dog on duty. You know, we have signs in our property that say, you know, everything's being recorded offsite to the cloud 24 seven. We have, I'm gonna tell you, we have license plate readers around our property, probably have 20 different cameras that are recording all the time. You know, is it paranoia?

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