Admin | Set watermarks based on the organizational structure

3 min read

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I. Intro

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Availability: Some of the features described in this article are in beta.

Who can perform these steps: Primary administrators or administrators with "Information Protection" permission.

Use watermarks to protect data and discourage the unauthorized sharing of screenshots and photos. After an administrator enables watermarks, they will appear in the Lark app, Lark Docs, and the Lark Admin Console.

As an administrator, you can customize the watermark rules to apply different statuses, content, and styles to different departments, user groups, and members. In addition, you can also set invisible watermarks to help with data leakage investigations.

II. Steps

Turn on the watermark

Open the Lark Admin Console, and click Security > Information Protection > Watermark settings.

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Find and select the department, member or user group that needs to set the watermark from the search bar, or click Expand to select from the structure of the organization.

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Click Edit, turn on Watermark and Invisible watermark as needed, and set the applicable scope, content, and style of the watermark. The preview of the settings is available on the right.

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Notice: "Applicable to" is in beta.

Setting	Description
Applicable to	At least one option must be selected. Online pages: The watermark will be displayed on pages opened in Lark (including the desktop or mobile app and the web version). Downloaded files: The downloaded and printed Lark documents will have the watermark. This option only applies to files created and exported in Lark Docs, and will not impact files uploaded to Lark Drive.
Content	You can either select the preset watermark content such as name, email prefix and last 4 digits of the phone number, or customize the watermark content to text such as the organization name, security tips, and so on. The custom content supports up to 20 characters (or 10 double-byte characters). Note: Email prefix refers to the personal email in Member Details, not the business email. If no personal email is set, the watermark content won't include the Email prefix.
Style	Set the spacing, size, opacity or rotation (-75° to 75°) of the watermark.
Invisible watermark	Turning on the invisible watermark will cover the pages with watermark that is almost invisible to the naked eyes. You can upload a screenshot of a page to parse and view the watermark content to investigate data leakage incidents. In addition, you can also choose the intensity of the invisible watermark as needed. Standard: The picture quality is basically unaffected; recommended for general needs. Intense: The picture will be slightly impacted; recommended for organizations with balanced requirements of security and picture quality. Extreme: The picture will be compromised; recommended for organizations pursuing extreme security.

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Click Save to apply the settings.

View watermark configuration details

After setting the watermark, you can click Rule Settings to view the applied scope of each watermark rule.

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Turn off watermark

On the Watermark settings page, search for and click a department, member, or user group.

Click Edit, and turn off the watermark and the invisible watermark as needed.

Click Save.

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Analyse invisible watermark

The invisible watermark serves as an assistance to protect your internal information. When enabled, the watermarks will not visibly appear. However, organizations can upload relevant screenshots to decode and view the watermark content on the page.

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On the Watermark settings page, click Search for Invisible Watermark, and upload a screenshot that needs to be analyzed. The supported file formats include JPG, PNG, WEBP, and BMP.

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Notice:

The invisible watermark analysis doesn't guarantee 100% success, especially when the intensity is set to Extreme. As a part of the information protection solution, the visible and invisible watermark provides deterrence and post-event tracking possibilities.

You can combine the watermark function with other security strategies to further enhance the information security of your organization.

III. FAQs

If a member belongs to multiple departments or user groups with different watermark rules, which rules would apply?

A team follows the settings of the unit one level above, instead of organization-wide settings.

Example: The organization-wide watermark shows Name while department A's watermark shows Name + Email prefix. When department A's watermark is changed to Name + Last 4 digits of phone number, all teams under department A will also change to this format.

The settings of the user group take precedence over settings of the organizational structure.

Example: Jane Smith belongs to both department A and user group B. The watermark of department A is set to Name + Last 4 digits of phone number while user group B uses Name + Email prefix. In this case, Jane Smith's watermark will use Name + Email prefix.

When the settings of a sub-level and parent level (person + user group, person + department, sub-department + parent department) conflict, the sub-level settings take precedence.

Example: If the watermark of department A is set to Name and sub-department A within department A is set to Name + Email prefix, then members of sub-department A will use Name + Email prefix.

When the settings of two subjects at the same level (user group and user group, department and department) conflict, both watermarks will be displayed together.

Example: The watermark for department A uses Name while department B uses Last 4 digits of phone number. As a member of both departments, Jane Smith's watermark will show Name + Last 4 digits of phone number.

How will the watermark be displayed for a member who belongs to multiple departments or user groups with different watermark statuses?

The stricter rule will take precedence.

For example, if a member belongs to both Department A and Department B, and the watermark setting of Department A is "off", while the watermark setting of Department B is "on", then the watermark status of this member will be "on".

With watermark turned on, will images copied and downloaded from the Lark app have a watermark?

No. Lark uses foreground or background watermarks to protect information security, but the watermarks are not added to images.

Why are some pages still showing watermarks even though an administrator has turned them off?

The following scenarios may still show the watermarks regardless of the settings in the Lark Admin Console:

Meeting room monitor: The administrator can turn on the watermarks for the meeting room monitor separately in the Meeting Rooms settings in the Lark Admin Console.

OKR and Attendance admin console: Watermarks can't be disabled.

Docs: If the members view a document owned by an external user whose organization has enabled the watermarks, those members will still see the watermarks.

How should I adjust the watermark style for the best display?

We recommend using the default style which has been designed and tested by the Lark team, taking into account its display effect and adaptability. Administrators can enable the watermark only for themselves first, check out the effect, and then set it for other members in the organization.

When checking out the watermark effect, make sure to confirm it on different ends, including the iOS app, Android app, desktop app and web version.

If I enable a watermark based on the organizational structure or user groups, will it be updated immediately if there are changes to the organizational structure?

No, the watermark will not be updated immediately if there are changes to the organizational structure or user groups. It may take up to 24 hours for the watermark to sync with the changes. If you need the updates to take effect immediately, you can directly edit the corresponding members' watermark settings manually.

Why can't I get invisible watermark analysis results after uploading an image?

Analysis may fail due to the following reasons:

The uploaded image does not contain Lark's invisible watermark (watermarks and invisible watermarks are added when images are displayed. If the user directly downloads an image, the image will not have a watermark).

The Lark invisible watermark on the uploaded image belongs to another organization.

The quality of the uploaded image has been damaged (for example, it has been compressed by IM chat tools or apps such as Photoshop), resulting in damaged watermark information. Lark will continue to improve the feature's detection capabilities.

How do invisible watermarks work?

Images can store more information than meets the eye. Information can be placed into an image, and then decoded later if needed. This is how Lark's invisible watermark feature works to protect your organization's information security.

What is the working principle of the watermark? Why is there no watermark when copying and downloading images?

Lark uses a "foreground/background watermark", which is suitable for page content protection scenarios. The watermark service directly generates the watermark background image and embeds it into the background page of the platform. Lark does not process and modify the image itself.

Where will the online page watermarks and download file watermarks be displayed?

Online page watermarks: When a member opens Lark (including desktop app, mobile app, web version), the page will display a watermark.

Download file watermarks:

Export documents to PDF, Word, and export flowcharts, UML and boards in documents as images.

Export Sheets as images. Downloaded Base files do not have watermarks.

Export Slides as PPT, PDF.

Print emails online and export emails as PDF.

Note: The download file watermark only applies to documents that are created and exported in Lark, not files uploaded to Lark Docs.

When both types of watermark are enabled, members will see watermarks in all the above mentioned scenarios.

What scenarios are suitable for separately configuring the online page watermark and the download file watermark?

For example, when a company's legal, procurement and other departments communicate externally, sending files to external collaborators through means other than Lark, and the external collaborators need to download the watermark-free documents to their local devices for printing. The company's administrator can enable the online page watermark and disable the download file watermark.

Written by: Lark Help Center

Updated on 2024-12-19

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