Exploring How a Label Maker Works (and Revealing a Security Venerability)

I’ve had label makers on my mind recently since Sean Ragan did a comparison of his old and new Brother machines. I still have and frequently use the same Brother PT-65 that he (and I) bought about 20 years ago.

In this BigClive video, Clive looks under the hood of his fancy new Brother PTE300VP to figure out how label makers actually work and to examine some of the more advanced features of the PTE300VP, such as cable-optimized labeling and label flags.

In the process of the video, a security venerability of label makers is revealed. The waste tape for the black film layer goes back into the cartridge. If you take apart the spent cartridge, and access this reel, you can see read everything (in negative) that was printed out on the machine (which could be a problem if any sensitive data has been printed on the tape).