Evidence and dates
A source date, a fact observation, a verification and a page edit describe different events.
What supports a statement
Source evidence is the document or record supporting a particular statement. An observed fact says what the source reports; verification means a recheck only where explicitly recorded. An inference must remain labeled as an inference and must not become a verified relationship by repetition.
Public employment or investment evidence is distinct from customer-private interaction context. A customer note can support what that customer recorded; it does not independently verify a public claim or grant redistribution rights.
When evidence is missing or contradictory, retain the unknown and the limitation. Access to a document does not by itself establish permission to include it in a paid result. Licensed sources and organization submissions keep their source type; a restricted source URL may remain null. Source labels never grant redistribution rights.
Date semantics
| Date | Meaning | When absent |
|---|---|---|
| publishedAt | When the source was published | Unknown; do not substitute capture time |
| capturedAt | When that source was acquired | Unknown; not a verification date |
| observedAt | When the fact or event was observed | Unknown; preserve a date-only source as date-only |
| verifiedAt | When the underlying fact was explicitly rechecked | Unknown; a record update is not verification |
| dataMeasuredAt | When an aggregate population was measured | Unknown; not each entity’s verification date |
| lastModified | When public page content changed | Not evidence that the underlying company changed |
The descriptive evidence JSON uses published_at, captured_at, observed_at and verified_at for the same meanings. Every field does not have every date. Date-only evidence stays in its source note; never invent a timestamp.
Provenance availability
Supporting source references and notes belong beside permitted facts in a bounded result. Subscription views do not expose a citation URL or every date for every field, including all commitments. Missing provenance cannot be repaired by treating record modification time as source publication or verification.
Public records carry source-specific dates where available. No population-wide measured refresh cadence or universal verification deadline is established here. Page modified, source captured, fact observed, entity verified and aggregate measured describe different events. Check the date attached to the relevant claim; a missing verification date means unknown. Stored source history does not establish a customer-facing historical-analysis interface.