Yellow Dots might not affect *you* because the Internet is your outlet of expression. But it does affect those who print flyers, newsletters or otherwise use printed media to get their message out.
Show me ONE case where these yellow dots have affected freedom of speech. They don't prevent you from printing the document , handing it out or stapling it to a power pole.
'it could be used' , 'hypothetically they can track you'.
Hypothetically possession of a piece of wood and a nail could be construed as 'this guy could put the nail in the piece of wood and go on a killing rampage with this , let's jail him'.
i think people are overreacting.
how about this : any photo camera stores tons of data in the exif headers. Even down to geotagging information these days. there are even services where oyu can upload a picture to have it analysed and it will show you where and when the picture was taken and from what angle. run a few facial recognition processes and you can find out who and where. (facebook and apple icloud run automatical face detection algorithms to conveniently cluster your images by whomever is in it )
So what would be the solution ? go outside wearing a burka and sunglasses , just in case someone might snap you as a passerby in a picture is not very feasible, so : we should forbid anyone from owning camera's. just to prevent you from accidentally being recorded on one. let's also ban all image recognition software . For that matter, let's turn off the internet , wifi , cellphones and go back to using carrier pigeons. At least you can eat those when they arrive. That way nobody can track you.
There's a website where you can track dollar bills as they travel around the country. -gasp- now they are tracking that dollar bill you bought that soda can with that you didn't properly recycle.
Come on people, there is a lot of overreacting to this.
The thing is : they started doing this to be able to detect reproductions. if the dot's are there : printed on a laser. That's what that constellation is for.
As for the encoding of the serial number : camera's do that too. Even photocopiers do that.
None of that stuff blocks freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is only impaired if an oppressive state uses that information to prosecute people. The information itself is harmless. It is how you use it.
If information were the problem : turn off the internet, burn all libraries , do not write anything down, do not make phone calls, don't talk to anyone. Then there will be no information.