What the Standard forbidsEvery rule, written to be quoted.

Two words, defined.

Fusion

In this Standard, fusion means one thing: a business's sealed record joined to an agency's case, through a release the business approves, one record at a time. It never means combining many sources into one database that anyone can search.

Trace

To trace is to work back, deliberately and by hand, over a record that already exists, after the event, under a case, by a person who is answerable for it. It is never to follow a person forward in real time.

The rules.

1. The system never decides.

   Every determination is made by a person, 100% of the time. Nothing in a package, a network signal or a Similarity Check result is a determination about anyone.

2. Requested, never taken.

   A business's record is requested, never taken. Each request names the agency, the person asking, the purpose and the record. If the business says no, a certified agency uses legal process as the law requires, and does not ask a vendor, another business or a network for the same record. Nothing in the Standard limits an agency's lawful authority, including in an emergency.

3. The business decides.

   A named person at the business approves or declines each request. No agency asks for, accepts or relies on a standing, blanket or automatic approval. No agency ties a service, a response time, a permit or a license to the business's answer. No agency asks or pays a business to watch for a person or a plate, to enroll anyone, or to run a check for it.

4. No look without a record.

   No search and no request happens without a purpose that names the event, its date and its place, and the authority relied on, all recorded with the name of the person asking. "Investigation", a code or a blank field is not a purpose. "Department policy" is not an authority. A certified agency logs every opening, copy, export, share and presentation of a package it holds. A business can ask an agency what of its records the agency holds and who read them, and gets an answer within 30 days, unless a sealed case or an open investigation delays it, in writing.

5. Nothing pooled by default. Nothing sold. No collection built by an agency.

   Records stay in the business's own account, under its control, and are not pooled with other businesses' records by default. A business takes part in any network that shares incident records only by its own choice, under written terms in a numbered version, and a change to what it shares is a new version it must accept again. No record is sold. No agency exports beyond the records of one case, collects from a portal or a verification page by machine, or builds any database, gallery or standing list of faces, plates, vehicles, descriptions, places or people from packages or signals. No agency enrolls a package's faces or plates in any face or plate search system.

6. One purpose per release.

   A package is used for the incident on its release and what grows from that incident. Using it in a different investigation needs a new request the business approves, or legal process.

7. No sharing beyond the case.

   A package is shared only with people working the same case in the same jurisdiction, with the prosecutor and with the court. Disclosure the law requires, including to the defense, is never a breach. Another agency, in another state or at the federal level, makes its own request to the business or serves its own process. Every onward share is recorded: who, with whom, when, why and under what authority. No image goes to the public or the press without the business's approval, unless the law requires it.

8. Observations, not accusations.

   A sealed record documents what was observed. It never states who a person is, and never accuses, labels or characterizes anyone. A network view shows observations, not accusations.

9. A camera never names anyone.

   A face or plate result from a Similarity Check is a lead that tells a person where to look. It is never a finding about who someone is. No stop, detention, search, arrest, charge, application for a warrant, bulletin or public naming rests on a Similarity Check result or a network signal alone; each needs an independent basis written in the case file. A witness is never shown a score or the image a result points to. A person checks every plate read character by character before anyone acts on it. Every Similarity Check run in a case is disclosed to the prosecutor, whether or not it helped, and its use is never left out of a report, an affidavit or testimony.

10. A score is a measurement, not a verdict.

    A Similarity Check score says how rarely two different people score this high, for example "about 1 in 10,000". It is never the chance that two images show one person. The comparison model and its calibration are disclosed to the prosecutor and the defense on request.

11. Tracing, never tracking.

    To trace is to work back over a record that already exists, under a case, by a person who answers for it. The Standard permits that and nothing more. No agency asks a business to watch for anyone. No system gives an agency a new way to search for, link or follow people, vehicles or places until the change is published for comment, adopted as a new major version, and accepted by each business whose records it reaches.

12. No quiet widening.

    Any change that widens what is kept, what is shared, or who can see it is a new major version. It is published with its reasons for public comment first. It reaches a business's records only after that business accepts it in writing. Every certified agency accepts it again. The plain-language summary changes the same day.

13. Nothing is kept because a machine kept everything.

    Operational data is kept for a short period the business sets and can see. Evidence is kept because a person sealed it. An agency keeps a package as long as the case and the law require, then destroys it and records the destruction. Destruction leaves proof.

14. Disclose first, and plainly.

    An agency that finds misuse reports it, tells the business whose record was misused, and never waits to be found out. No one retaliates against a person who reports.

15. Certification is for people and agencies, never for a product.

    "FusionTrace Certified™" describes an agency or a person who completed the training, passed the exam and signed the commitment. It never describes a product, a vendor or a system. Certification never requires buying or using any product. It can be suspended and revoked, in public.

To hold someone to a line on this page, write to standard@fusiontrace.io with what happened, when and where. A person reads every message. A published complaint process is coming.