Handling printer security and sensitive documents

Questions
1

Hey there, I’m very new here and also to the privacy/security rabbit hole. But I’m so glad I found this forum! So I hope I do everything correctly :smiley:

OK my topic woukd be as the title says: how vulnerable are printers (if they work) and what did you guys found to be the best way to handle, store and send sensitive documents in general?

I’ve got to send some governmental docs and since I got a big scare over the last few month’s by one IT friend and a family member (and the news of course), I’m not too sure (yet) how much my data is really at stake and even less what to do about it. So until I am - hopefully - more or less independent, I hope to be able to get the needed advice from the community. By most likely having weird questions… My mind is actually racing sometimes bcs I just don’t know how to keep my data at and for myself - not even when they went out the window and how to notice that. But one step after another, I just wanted to give some background.

Additional thoughts and questions I got beside the main ones in the 2nd paragraph:

  • If I send an email with attachments in Gmail, will Google have my data?
  • If I open my documents with any program, will this data be captured (by whoever that program is from)?
  • Is it safe to print documents in copyshops? I heard you can get viruses there, but if I never use that USB ever again (or find other solutions to clean it :sweat_smile:), the data of the printed documents should be private, no?
  • (less privacy aspects:) what printers work reliably that also value ur privacy (I feel like I have currently got the worst with a HP printer)

That’s it for now. I hope it’s not unusual to ask that kind of small stuff, and much of it - but I feel like I gotta start somewhere.

Thanks so much for any help and I appreciate you taking the time!

2

Printers generally have a hard drive inside them, and store every thing that is copied, scanned and printed. It is what I have heard from people. To verify it, I need to open my printer and check if there really is an hard drive.

  1. Yes, Google wild definitely have your data.
  2. It depends on the OS and the app. Say, If you use linux and default pdf. No issues. In case of Apple, probably file name. In windows, Adobe is popular - I don’t know what happens there.
  3. Well, It depends - there are some shops that plug out hard drive of Printer and sell it to data brokers. It is rare now but still happens.
  4. If you want some good printer with its software working without an Account - Brother, Canon and Epson work the best.

To share documents, try to share via Proton Drive or Cryptpad. You can revoke it anytime. Only problem, AFAIK, Proton don’t allow disabling download button as some other services. Maybe they do but I haven’t noticed.

If you really, want to print, use your own printer if possible. Share documents only via secure handles such as Drive links that are easily revocable later or password protected files.

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