Truth is stranger than fiction - color printers with tracking code

Continuing on my recent post about news stories that sound suspiciously like conspiracy theories, here's something interesting I came across in today's early morning surfing.

Would you believe that many color printers (including those of HP and XEROX makes) sold in US in the past few years printed pages with tracking code in the form of millimeter sized yellow dots that can only be seen in blue light? And that these yellow dots, seemingly sprinkled randomly across the page form a pattern which can tell government authorites (and any one else who can crack the pattern!) the serial number of the printer, and the date and time the document was printed?

Well, it's true! It comes from authoritative sources, and today's not April 1st. Read on more about it at this Washington Post article.

I am not exactly sure whether to think of this breach of privacy as some thing totally sinister, or as a necessary evil needed to combat bigger problems such as counterfeiting. It also makes it a little easier to track down careless forgeries :)

What do you think?