tl;dr: The author proposes renaming hidden tracking signals embedded in AI-generated or platform-processed media (like Google's SynthID, which can encode 136-bit payloads in images) from "watermarks" to "spymarks" to highlight their surveillance function. Unlike visible watermarks or removable metadata like EXIF, spymarks are imperceptible, survive edits and re-encoding, and can encode identifiers linking content back to users—posing risks to whistleblowers and anyone whose content could be traced. The terminology shift aims to bake the privacy concern directly into the conversation.