Controlling what Clients see on Operations

Client visibility on a Case is controlled per Operation, not per Case. By default, Clients see nothing. You decide which Operations to surface to them, and that decision flows through to the Evidence, comments, and activity attached to those Operations. This article explains the three visibility modes, how they work, and how to use them well.

The three visibility modes

Every Operation carries a client_visibility setting with one of three values:

• None: the default. The Operation is invisible to every Client on the Case. They cannot see it exists, cannot see the Evidence on it, and cannot comment on it.
• All: every Client on the Case can see this Operation, the Evidence inside it, and the comments on it. They can also comment if commenting is enabled.
• Select: only specific Clients on the Case (chosen from the Operation's visibility settings) can see this Operation. Other Clients on the Case see nothing.

What a Client sees when an Operation is visible

• The Operation's title, type, status, and date.
• Any Evidence that has been uploaded to that Operation, including thumbnails and previews.
• The comment thread: Clients can read and add comments.
• The activity timeline for that Operation.

Clients do not see your internal Notes (Notes live on the Case, not the Operation). They do not see other hidden Operations, even if those reference the same Subject. They do not see the Members list of your team. They never see anything from a different Case.

Setting visibility on an Operation

1. Open the Operation.
2. Open the visibility control. Owners and Admins can change visibility; Investigators cannot.
3. Pick None, All, or Select. If you pick Select, choose which Clients are included.
4. Save. The change applies immediately and is recorded in the audit trail under client_view.* events.

Why client visibility lives on the Operation

Investigative work happens at the Operation level: a surveillance shift, a research session, a Subject interview. Some of those work products are appropriate to share with the Client; some are work-in-progress and would only confuse them; some are sensitive (an internal investigative theory) and should never go out. Per-Operation visibility lets you make that judgment one work-product at a time.

Sensible defaults

• Keep early-stage research None until you have a finding worth sharing.
• Set finished surveillance Operations to All when the Evidence is reviewed and you are ready to deliver.
• Use Select when a Case has multiple Clients (for example, a law firm and the underlying client) and a particular Operation should only go to one of them.
• If you have to redact, do it before you upload Evidence, not after. Evidence is immutable once uploaded. See Why Evidence is immutable.

Reverting visibility

You can switch an Operation back to None at any time. The Client immediately loses access on their next page load. The audit trail records the change. If the Client has already viewed the content, you cannot un-see it for them; visibility controls future access, not past observation. Plan accordingly before you flip an Operation to All.

Related articles

• Case roles: Owner, Admin, Investigator, Viewer, Client
• Operation types and statuses
• How Evidence upload and integrity work