What is the primary function of watermarking in digital documents?

Watermarking primarily serves the purpose of superimposing a logo or text on digital documents to indicate ownership or copyright protection. This process helps to deter unauthorized use or reproduction of the content by making it clear who the original creator is. Watermarks can be visible, such as a logo or a phrase, or invisible, embedded in the file in a way that is not easily detected but can still assert copyright claims.

In the context of safeguarding intellectual property, watermarking acts as a crucial tool for creators, allowing them to maintain control over their work and providing a means to reference authorship in case of disputes over content use. This makes it especially common in images, videos, and documents where ownership must be established clearly and maintained.

While watermarking does contribute to broader security strategies, such as protecting intellectual property, it does not directly relate to data loss prevention, encryption of sensitive data, or analyzing network traffic patterns, which are functions associated with other security measures.