In order to prevent identity theft, the Government has just put a tool online that makes it possible to affix a watermark to documents in a few seconds. A reflex to adopt to secure shipments of identity documents.
Some situations require you to provide a third party with a copy of your identity documents, such as your identity card, passport or driver’s license. This is a frequent request from organizations and businesses, whether to rent a vehicle, open a bank account or prepare a property rental file. But these documents contain sensitive personal information (name, date of birth, address…) and, even if we only provide them to professional and reliable organizations and companies, they can fall into the wrong hands. All it takes is a well-executed cyberattack or a successful intrusion into the server where the documents are stored for malicious people to seize them and use them for criminal purposes, such as identity theft. Thus, the Voyageurs du Monde agency was the victim of a cyberattack last May, during which 10,000 copies of passports that were stored on its servers were stolen and then broadcast on the Dark Web (see our article).
This personal data represents a veritable gold mine for hackers. Identity theft affects thousands of people in France every year and can have disastrous consequences. However, there is a very simple solution to prevent your documents from being hijacked: the watermark – a small logo or text superimposed on a document or an image. Also, to secure your shipments, the Government has put a tool online allowing you to affix a watermark to any document in just a few clicks. A reflex to take!
Identity theft: how to insert a watermark in your documents?
To secure your shipments, the beta.gouv program has developed a tool allowing you to add a watermark to any document to be protected (permit, passport, identity card, proof of address, etc.), as long as it is in JPEG, PNG or PDF format. You choose the watermark to insert, depending on the document and its use – it can be “Document exclusively intended for real estate rental” or “Driving license for a rental on August 6, 2023” for example. This text allows the document not to be diverted for a use other than that indicated – impossible to open a bank account with it if the watermark mentions a hiring.
The site says it deletes the original files after the watermarked file is generated, and deletes the watermarked file after the first download or ten days after if there was no download. Here is the procedure to follow to affix a watermark on one of your documents:
► Go to the website watermark.beta.gouv.fr.
► Click the button Select. files to import the document on which you want to add a watermark.
► In the corresponding field, indicate the watermark to be inserted, such as “Document exclusively intended for real estate rental”. Please be as specific as possible.
► Click the blue button Add watermark to generate the watermarked file.
► Wait a few seconds, then click on Download watermarked documentwhich appears just below the blue button, to retrieve your document in PDF format.
Note that adding a watermark to a document is not enough to protect it 100%. Indeed, today there are many sites and tools that use artificial intelligence to remove it in seconds. However, the watermark remains a simple and quick way to prevent a malicious person from hijacking your document. Let’s say that this greatly limits the risks. Also, not all tools provide clean results. We tested the famous Watermark Remover.io (see our article), which failed to properly remove our watermark on the ID card and erased part of the photo in the process. The test is therefore rather conclusive! You know what you have to do for the next few times!
