Privacy Options

As a print tracking system, most organizations and users will expect PaperCut to record all printing activity. For organizations concerned that users might require more privacy than the default level of tracking affords, features can be enabled or disabled to suit. E.g. if it is considered that the content of documents should not be viewed by PaperCut administrators, the Print Archiving feature can be disabled. Many features can be enabled and disabled at OptionsGeneral.

Additional privacy-specific options are available at OptionsGeneralPrivacy Options.

Privacy Options

Omit document names from the print log

If this option is enabled, the document name of print jobs will not be logged. Document names may include identifying information about a user or the nature of their print job.

Anonymize jobs (don't link jobs with users)

When processing a job (print, copy, scan or fax), PaperCut needs to know the originating user to handle the job correctly, e.g. to provide the user with the correct account selection settings. When this option is enabled, once PaperCut has finished processing a job it will "forget" the original user and clear any information from the database that links the two.

This anonymization is achieved by re-assigning the job to a different, specified user once the job has completed. The default and recommended approach is to assign jobs to a user called anonymous. If this user does not exist at the time the feature is enabled then a new internal (non-domain) user with the configured name will be created (this user will have no password, so cannot be used to log in).

Viewing the Job Log for this anonymous user will show all jobs in the system. The transactions (charging) for jobs will still be applied to the original user, however, so that features such as print quotas will continue to work as expected. Please note that transaction times and job log times could be cross-referenced to potentially determine a link, as they will be close together in time. If this is a concern then the options at OptionsBackupsAutomatic Backups can be used to delete transaction logs older than a given age.

Enabling this option will mean that any functionality requiring a link between a user and a job (once the job has completed) will no longer be available. This includes user-based reporting and job refunds. It is recommended that this option is only enabled if strictly required.