The Standard · Version 1.0 (draft)
What a sealed record must be.The FusionTrace Evidence Standard.
The FusionTrace Evidence Standard is a public set of rules for how incident records a business chooses to share are preserved, sealed, requested, released and checked. It also says what law enforcement agencies that commit to it agree never to do with those records.
Status
Version 1.0 (draft). The full text is not yet published. Until it is, what the Standard governs and the eight commitments, on this page, and the rules on What the Standard forbids are the Standard's public summary, and this site cites no clause of an unpublished text. Write to standard@fusiontrace.io about any line.
What the Standard governs.
- A record
- The Standard governs documented observations a business chooses to share; it is not a criminal justice information system, and agencies keep their own records in their own systems.
- A link
- A link across businesses exists only between records each business chose to share with the network. A person confirms every link. The network reports similarity, never identity.
- A request
- A request event carries exactly: the investigator's name, the investigator's work email, the law enforcement agency's name, the purpose chosen from the Standard's list, the authority chosen from the Standard's list, and the business's own case number. It carries nothing else. The agency's own case number, notes and files stay in the agency's own system.
The eight commitments.
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.
Requested, never taken.
An agency asks a business for a record, and the 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. Nothing in the Standard limits an agency's lawful authority, including in an emergency.
The business decides.
A named person at the business approves or declines each request, one at a time. No standing, blanket or automatic approval. No service, permit or response time is ever tied to the answer.
Every look is logged.
A release opens the record to the agency for 90 days, and every look in the system that holds it is logged. A copy the agency downloads is kept as long as the case and the law require, and a certified agency commits to log every access to it.
Sealed, and checkable by whoever receives it.
Every file in the package's index carries a SHA-256 fingerprint, which shows it has not changed, and the index and the manifest are digitally signed, which shows who sealed them. The recipient, and the prosecutor, defense and court the case brings in, can check it against the issuer's published key, in a browser, without asking the steward or the issuer. One changed byte in any indexed file makes that file fail its check.
The system never decides. A person does, every time.
It never decides: every determination is made by a person, 100% of the time. A Similarity Check result tells a person where to look. It is never a finding about who someone is.
An agency's own case number is never collected.
A system built to the Standard never asks for or keeps an agency's own case number. The agency copies the business's case number into its own case management system, never the other way round.
Tracing, never tracking.
To trace is to work back over a record that already exists, after the event, under a case, by a person who answers for it. It is never to follow a person forward in real time.
How a package is sealed
What a sealed package is.
A sealed package is a ZIP archive whose files are stored uncompressed, so each file's bytes are the bytes that were hashed. An artifact index lists every file with its SHA-256 hash (FIPS 180-4). The index and a manifest each carry their own SHA-256 and an Ed25519 signature (RFC 8032) over it, made with the issuer's key.
The recipient, and the prosecutor, defense and court the case brings in, can recompute every hash and check both signatures with the issuer's published public key, without asking the issuer or the steward. One changed byte in any indexed file makes that file fail its check. A file the index does not cover, such as a certificate page or the archive's own headers, is not protected by the seal, and a verifier says so.
A check that agrees shows that a file has not changed since it was sealed. It does not show how the file came off the recorder. Who preserved each file, and how, is a question for the business.
How it reaches an authority.
A sealed package reaches an authority one of three ways: a secure link the business sends, behind a one-time code; an upload into the law enforcement agency's own evidence portal, such as Axon Evidence.com; or a release through the FusionTrace™ agency portal after the business approves the request. Every route is locked: encrypted, to the recipient the business chose, every look on the record. And on every route the package arrives sealed: each file carries a SHA-256 fingerprint and the whole package is digitally signed, so change one byte and the check fails. The recipient, and the prosecutor, defense and court the case brings in, verify it themselves, with no key from us.
Verify a package runs these checks in your browser.
A standard is only as strong as the check you can run on it yourself.
That is why Verify is on this site, in the open, and why it runs in the browser.
Why it exists
Where trust breaks, and what the Standard answers.
Every pattern an investigator ever finds was first a single incident someone wrote down well, or didn't. Records from cameras reach investigators, prosecutors and courts every day, and trust in them breaks in the same few places.
- A record nobody can check. If the only way to check a file is to ask the company that made it, the file proves nothing on its own.
- A machine that decides. A score is not a determination. When software decides who or what an image shows, a person has stopped being responsible for the record.
- Records that leave without a decision. When footage is pooled, sold, or searched without the owner's decision, the people the cameras record never agreed to any of it.
- A machine that puts a name to a face. A face can be compared. A comparison is a lead for a person to check, never a name.
- Sharing with no process. Access that is always on is access nobody decided on.
A promise lives in a contract. A standard lives in public. When the rules are written where a chief, a prosecutor, a defense attorney and a reporter can all read the same page, every package can be held to them, and so can every law enforcement agency that commits to them.
Faces and plates are compared. A person decides.
A system built to the Standard may compare faces and plates. The public name for that comparison is Similarity Check. Its result is a lead a person must check, and no stop, search or arrest may rest on it alone.
Who publishes it
Publisher, stewards, board and licensing.
- Publisher
- fusiontrace.io is published by BlueWave Technology, Inc., an Oklahoma corporation, as steward of the FusionTrace Evidence Standard until the FusionTrace Foundation takes it over.
- Stewards
- The Standard is stewarded by Stephen Pales and Jim Cords, co-founders of BlueWave Technology, Inc., which builds software to it. Any vendor may build to the Standard, and every implementation, the first included, is held to the same rules.
- Board
- Stewardship will pass to an independent board, with a majority independent of any vendor, and with nonprofit organizations, law enforcement, prosecution and civil liberties among the first seats filled. No board exists today, and no date is set.
- Licensing
- U.S. Patent No. 11,830,346 B2 · 3 additional patents pending. BlueWave Technology, Inc. will license any patent claim essential to implementing the Standard on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
- Comment
- Written comments are welcome now at standard@fusiontrace.io. A formal comment process, with a window of at least 30 days for every change, is coming.
- Revision history
- 16 October 2026: a first public summary, written as principles. 17 October 2026: replaced by the eight commitments and the rules on What the Standard forbids, marked Version 1.0 (draft). 19 October 2026: what the Standard governs, a record, a link and a request, added in the Standard's own words.
Disclosure · as of 17 October 2026
The first implementation.
Certification is by invitation through the FusionTrace Academy™. The Steward scores every exam and issues every certificate. The first implementation, the software BlueWave Technology, Inc. builds, is being brought into full conformance with Version 1.0 (draft) of the Standard. A conformance report will be published.
This page states what the Standard requires. It does not say that any system or agency meets it today.
Disclosed, not hidden.
The Standard asks that ties are disclosed: the publisher builds the first implementation, and says so.