What does it mean when data is marked parsed or decoded?¶

It means forensic software recognised stored structures or values and presented them as a human-readable artefact.

The report is an interpretation layer¶

A parser can turn database fields into sender, text, time, direction and status, or convert numeric time, encoded content and coordinates. This makes large technical sources reviewable. The friendly record should still retain a route to its extraction, file, table, field and raw value where material.

Parsing can be reliable and limited¶

Rules depend on operating-system, application version and structure. Updates, corruption and repurposed fields can cause omissions or mislabelling, and tools may differ. Routine artefacts can be used within validated capabilities; decisive or disputed ones may require source review, comparison or test data.