Cryptographic Evidence Preservation for Trust & Safety

Storage and evidence are not the same thing

Traditional storage asks whether the file still exists. Evidence preservation asks whether the
organization can demonstrate that what it has is the same thing that was preserved. Cryptographic
hashing can provide a mechanism for detecting modification.
Separate custody and cryptographic control
Candor's architecture separates storage custody from cryptographic control: Candor controls the
storage vault; the customer controls the encryption key. Possessing encrypted material is not
equivalent to possessing the customer's decryption authority.
Preservation should fail loudly
A preservation attempt that silently fails can create serious problems later. A security-oriented
preservation system should make failure visible and auditable, with alerting or escalation rather
than silent continuation.
Evidence needs context
Preserving an object does not explain why it was preserved. Pairing Evidence Preservation with
Ledger can associate evidence with the event, policy, decision, timestamp and authorized actor or
system.
Related concepts
Tamper-Evident Trust & Safety Ledger.
DON'T TRUST US. VERIFY US.
Test the system, inspect the architecture, and decide whether it belongs in your safety
stack.
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