TechPrufer
Sign inGet started

Blogs›Datadog›Screenshot Watermarking

Screenshot Watermarking

Screenshot Watermarking

1
posts
2026

Datadog introduced a steganography-based system to embed widget metadata within screenshots. This system allows for the invisible encoding of a Redis cache key into the pixel data of a widget's border. When a screenshot is taken and pasted, the embedded key can be used to retrieve the original widget's metadata from Redis, enabling features like live previews and context preservation even when users opt for screenshots over direct sharing links. The implementation involves compressing and encoding metadata into an 8-byte key, which is then hidden in the widget's 1px border by subtly altering pixel colors. This watermark is designed to be resilient to various image manipulations and display variations. The system scales to over a billion watermarks per day by leveraging Redis caching and organization-specific keys to prevent collisions.

2026

Steganography at scale: Embedding share URLs in Datadog widget screenshots | Datadog

4/21/2026

This post details the engineering effort behind implementing steganography to embed share URL metadata within Datadog widget screenshots. It covers the design of an invisible watermarking system that encodes a Redis cache key into the widget's border pixels. The post explains the data compression and encoding strategy, the use of Redis for caching widget definitions, the rationale for using an 8-byte key, and the method of embedding this key into the 1px widget border. It also discusses the challenges of scale, including handling over a billion renders per day and preventing ID collisions by prepending organization IDs to widget IDs. Performance optimizations and the resilience of the watermarking against various image processing workflows are also highlighted.