Why Evidence or Reports tabs are missing

If you opened your Case as a Client and noticed that some tabs — Evidence, Reports, Operations, Notes — are not showing the content you expected (or are missing entirely), this is by design. NearbySpy gives Investigators tight control over what each Client sees, and the rules are enforced at the database level. This article explains why and what to do about it.

The principle: visibility is opt-in

Inside every Case, the Investigator decides which content to share with the Client and which to keep private. The default is that nothing is shared. As work progresses, the Investigator marks specific Operations, Evidence items, or Reports as visible to you. You only ever see what was explicitly shared.

This is the same principle the Investigator follows for legal protection, source confidentiality, and chain-of-custody hygiene. It is not a sign that anything is being withheld in bad faith — it is the standard way Investigators operate.

Why a tab might be empty

• Nothing has been shared yet. The Case is new, or the Investigator has not yet finished work to share. Active surveillance often produces no Client-visible material until the engagement is complete.
• Items exist but are marked private. The Investigator has chosen not to share them. From your view, they are indistinguishable from items that do not exist.
• The Operation is still in progress. Some Investigators wait until an Operation reaches a specific status before sharing it.

Why a whole tab might be missing

• The tab does not apply to Clients. Some areas of the Case (such as internal investigator notes, billing breakdowns, or operator assignments) are simply not part of the Client view.
• The Case is in a phase where that tab has nothing in it. Empty Reports tabs sometimes hide automatically until the first Report is shared.
• You are signed into the wrong account. If you have multiple NearbySpy accounts (work email, personal email), only the one matched to the invitation has access. Sign out and sign in with the email on the original invitation. See Why you land on Client vs Investigator dashboard.

What to do

• Send a short message asking your Investigator what to expect and when. Most Investigators will share Evidence in batches at planned milestones rather than as it lands. See Messaging your Investigator.
• Refresh the page. The platform updates in near-real-time, but a refresh forces a clean re-fetch.
• Check the email account you used to accept the invitation. Sign in with that exact address. See Accepting a Case invitation.

Why this is enforced strictly

NearbySpy uses role-based access control with a strict deny-by-default rule. Database-level policies filter every Case query so a Client only ever receives rows the Investigator marked as visible to them. There is no way to "almost" see something — content is either explicitly shared with you or it is not in the response at all. That tight boundary is the same protection that keeps your data private from anyone who is not on your Case.

For a deeper look at what shared content looks like once it appears, continue with Viewing shared Evidence as a Client.