Users lose control and privacy when software secretly embeds invisible tracking identifiers in their files

Content creators, privacy-conscious users, and organizations discover that mainstream applications like MS Paint and Photos are covertly embedding invisible GUIDs and watermarks into locally-generated files without consent or disclosure. This violates user expectations of privacy for local work, creates security risks through hidden identifiers that can be traced back to users, and current solutions fail because users have no visibility into or control over this behavior until reverse-engineering reveals it.