Case 06 — Watermark hunting

Embedding a watermark, then trying to destroy it through nothing more hostile than ordinary handling

29 March 2027

You are not attacking anyone else’s system today — you’re attacking your own, which is both safer and more honest, because you get to see exactly what survived and exactly why.

Before the session#

Nothing to prepare. Bring a device that can screenshot and re-save an image at least twice.

In the session#

Embed a toy watermark in an image using the week’s provided tool, then put it through a gauntlet: screenshot it, recompress it, crop it, re-upload it through a messaging app to yourself. Check after each step whether the watermark still reads.

Afterwards#

Compare notes with the room. If everyone’s watermark died at the same step, that’s not a coincidence — that’s a specific, nameable weakness worth carrying into week 7’s discussion of provenance.