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Watermarks that spy on users are no mere watermarks
There’s a sneaky new evolution of the “watermark”, let’s call it — the spymark.
A watermark is a visible mark embedded in a physical or digital medium to verify authenticity or assert ownership.
A spymark is a hidden signal that makes your work traceable without your knowledge or consent.
Spymarking is sneaking onto the internet
Google SynthID is a spymark that embeds secret hidden signals “imperceptible to humans” (Google’s own words) into images, audio, text, and video. This signal can encode database identifiers that map to your identity. Your user records, full name, IP addresses, date of birth, physical addresses, political party affiliation, and more.