Visibility & Discovery Policy

1. Purpose

This policy defines how visibility and discovery function within the Signal Network.

It exists to clarify who can see what, under which conditions, and with whose consent, independent of terminology used elsewhere in the system.

This policy governs exposure, not existence.

2. Core Principle

No Node, proof, profile, ledger, registry entry, score, or API response is discoverable, browsable, or inferable without explicit user opt-in.

Absence of visibility must not be interpreted as absence of existence.

3. Visibility States

All Nodes and associated artifacts exist in exactly one of the following states at any time:

3.1 Private (Default A)

• Proofs are visible only to the Node
• Titles, metadata, and content are hidden
• No appearance in registries, explorers, search, or APIs
• No indexing by crawlers or external systems
• This is the default state for all users and content

3.2 Network-Discoverable (Opt-In)

• Node may be discoverable only within Signal-controlled systems
• Discovery is mediated by trust thresholds, prompts, or governance rules
• Content remains unreadable unless explicitly shared
• Titles or existence indicators may be surfaced without content

3.3 Profile-Public (Explicit Opt-In)

• User chooses to expose specific identity artifacts: profile, selected proofs, Signal Passport elements
• Exposure is scoped and reversible
• Does not imply full ledger or history access

3.4 Fully Public (Rare, Explicit)

• User intentionally exposes selected content to the open web
• This state is exceptional and revocable
• Even here, the system does not infer or auto-publish additional data

4. Terminology Clarification

Any construct described elsewhere as "public," "explorer," "registry," "profile," "dashboard," or "API" is governed by this policy.

Such terms describe capability, not default exposure.

Unless a user has explicitly opted in:

• Registries are empty
• Explorers return nothing
• Profiles are inaccessible
• APIs deny or return null responses

5. Discovery Rules

• Discovery occurs only inside Signal-controlled interfaces
• No global browsing
• No open search
• No bulk enumeration
• No inference through absence or presence

Discovery is prompt-mediated, threshold-gated, and revocable.

6. API Access

• APIs return data only with authorization
• No endpoint permits unauthenticated discovery
• No endpoint allows bulk listing of Nodes, proofs, or metadata
• Verification APIs confirm claims presented by the caller; they do not reveal new information

7. Revocation

Users may revoke visibility at any time.

Upon revocation:

• Content becomes immediately inaccessible
• Registries and explorers update to remove the Node
• Proof-of-existence records may persist internally for integrity, without exposure

Revocation does not invalidate prior proofs; it removes access.

8. Governance Supremacy

This policy overrides:

• UI affordances
• Naming conventions
• Product language
• Third-party assumptions

If any system surface implies visibility in conflict with this policy, this policy prevails.

9. Non-Goals

This policy does not:

• Rank humans
• Guarantee discoverability
• Promise exposure
• Optimize for attention
• Serve search engines or external AI crawlers

Signal is not indexed by the internet. Signal is indexed by consent.