Visibility and Privacy

When you sourcemark a file, you decide who can see it. Sourcemark gives you three visibility levels for each record and a separate control for your public profile. Together, these settings let you be as open or as private as you want — and change your mind at any time.

The principle is straightforward: you control what the world sees.

Record visibility

Every record in your library has one of three visibility levels.

Discoverable

Your record appears on your public profile and is findable through Sourcemark search. Anyone browsing the platform can see it. Choose this when you want maximum exposure — you're proud of the work and you want people to find it.

Link-only

Your record is accessible to anyone who has the direct link, but it won't appear on your public profile or in search results. The verification link still works perfectly — anyone you share it with can confirm provenance, see your AI training declaration, and view the record details. They just can't stumble across it on their own.

This is useful when you want to share verification selectively. Send the link to a client, include it in an invoice, or embed it on a specific page — but keep it out of public directories.

Hidden

Your record does not appear in public search or on your profile. Anyone with the direct verification link can still view it, but no one will stumble across it on their own. This is a good default if you're not sure what level of visibility you want yet. You can always open it up later.

Profile listing

Separate from record visibility, you choose whether your profile itself appears in the Sourcemark public directory. This is a profile-level setting, not a per-record one.

When profile listing is on, people can find your profile by browsing or searching the directory. When it's off, your profile page still exists at its URL, but it won't be surfaced through directory listings.

Here's the important part: for a record to appear on your public profile, both conditions must be true. The record must be set to discoverable, and your profile must be listed. If either one is off, the record won't show up on your public profile page.

Important

This two-layer approach gives you fine-grained control. You might list your profile but keep most records link-only, showing only your best work publicly. Or you might mark several records discoverable but keep your profile unlisted while you're still building out your library.

How visibility affects verification

Visibility controls who can find your records, not whether verification works. Here's a quick summary:

Discoverable— anyone can find it, anyone can verify it
Link-only— only people with the link can see and verify it. The link is the access. If someone has the URL, verification works exactly as it would for a discoverable record.
Hidden— your record is not listed publicly. The verification link still works for anyone who has it.

Choosing a default

If you're unsure, start with hidden. You can always change a record's visibility after creation — there's no cost to opening things up once you're comfortable. Moving from hidden to link-only to discoverable is a common progression as creators get familiar with how Sourcemark works.

Note

Sourcemark never changes your visibility settings or makes a record public without your explicit action. You are always in control.

Ready to share your records? Explore the sharing toolkit.