Digital Watermark: What is It and How It Protects Your Digital Assets

Companies and individuals generate tons of digital media files, including audio, videos, and pictures. These digital assets are easily accessible online, which can result in data leakage. The heightened use of social media has increased the sharing and reproduction of these digital media. That’s where the digital watermark comes in.

Digital watermarks help users to prevent the inappropriate use of digital data without proper identification. Digital security warns anyone who comes across the document, images, video, etc., about their sensitivity. They also help in tracking the source and where the data leak happened.

This article highlights what a digital watermark is and how it protects your digital assets.

Digital Watermark Explained

A watermark is an identification that users superimpose on documents, images, or videos to prevent unauthorized use. They also use it to preserve their originality. You can find physical watermarks on banknotes, and people use them to differentiate genuine notes from fake ones.

Similarly, a digital or forensic watermark is mostly a piece of code that companies or individuals embed into pictures, videos, or audio. The good news is that they don’t alter the information that the data carries.  Instead, the digital watermark protects sensitive data, restricts access, prevents copyright infringement, ensures the assets’ validity, and helps trace the media when stolen.

There are different types of digital watermarks. They include:

• Visible/perceptible digital watermarks – Can be seen.
• Invisible/imperceptible digital watermarks – These are codes embedded in the media to show ownership.
• Fragile watermarks – They’re easily lost when they undergo alterations, i.e., resizing.
• Spatial Watermarks – The watermark is embedded into video pixels or cover images.

Benefits of Digital Security Watermarking

Asset Protection

Digital watermarking protects visual files and images from an unauthorized person who might want to steal, alter or use the content without your consent.

Platforms, broadcasters, and service delivery operators lose a lot of money each year due to the piracy of their premium content. Digital watermarking helps identify the source of leaks and quickly suspend them to reduce associated revenue losses.

Brand Consistency

Watermarking keeps your assets and brand safe. It prevents unauthorized individuals from misusing them and notifies you when someone shares your digital assets instead of viewing them. Unauthorized use of your digital assets deteriorates your content and can have legal implications that negatively impact your business.

Maintains Quality

People dedicate significant time and resources to producing videos and audio. They want their products to reach their viewers in good quality. Imperceptible digital watermarking secures your videos while maintaining their quality.

In Conclusion

Digital watermarking is powerful tool businesses, and individuals use to protect their digital media.  They spend a lot of time and money on this content. They want to increase the value of their assets and protect them from being altered or stolen. Indeed watermarking improves the longevity of the use of your digital assets.