Product decisions
Principles that guide UONE
These principles shape the customer experience, evidence presentation, messages, and recovery guidance.
| Area | Standard | Operational meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Evidence before assumption | Present findings only when supported by relevant evidence; do not fill gaps with guesses. |
| 02 | Blank is a valid outcome | Leaving a field empty is better than presenting unreliable information as useful. |
| 03 | Evidence level is not certainty | Use the evidence-level category and ordinal index to guide review, not to replace identity confirmation or human judgement. |
| 04 | Explain uncertainty | Show when evidence is incomplete, conflicting, outdated, or suitable for manual review. |
| 05 | Better input, better context | Accurate, complete identity context can improve differentiation, but does not guarantee evidence. |
| 06 | One clear action per control | Buttons and messages should reflect the latest confirmed action, especially when starting, pausing, resuming, stopping, or signing out. |
| 07 | Recover without duplication | Interrupted work should be recoverable without silently creating duplicate campaigns, exports, or charges. |
| 08 | Responsible use by design | The product should reinforce authorisation, proportionality, access control, and appropriate human review. |
| 09 | No hidden overpromises | Avoid unsupported claims about accuracy, success rate, legal compliance, recency, or guaranteed contact information. |
| 10 | Privacy by design | Privacy, minimisation, controlled access, retention, and deletion are considered throughout product and operational design rather than added only after deployment. |
| 11 | Least-privilege access | People should receive only the information and permissions needed for their approved responsibilities, with sensitive and administrative actions attributable. |
| 12 | Secure data handling | Submitted information, operational records, and exports should be handled in proportion to their sensitivity throughout collection, use, retention, sharing, and deletion. |
Why these principles matter
A useful service must be honest when evidence is limited, clear when an action needs attention, and specific about what the customer should review.
Transparency with proportionate confidentiality
UONE explains evidence quality, uncertainty, human review, data minimisation, and accountability in clear terms. Transparency does not require publication of credentials, internal architecture, security thresholds, or provider-routing logic.
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Related public guidance
Explore how these principles appear in operational, trust, and legal guidance.