What records might a website platform hold?¶

A managed website platform can hold far more than the public page because it controls the accounts and software used to create and operate the service.

Four groups of records¶

Account records may include registration, verification, recovery details, linked accounts and payments.

Permission records may show owners, administrators, editors, sellers, invitations and changes in role.

Activity records may include page creation, edits, deletion, uploads, logins, API use, messages, orders and payouts.

Security and support records may include password resets, restrictions, alerts, complaints, support conversations and recovery activity.

The exact set depends on the platform type. A blog service, online shop, marketplace and website builder process different events. Some also rely on separate payment, analytics or identity providers.

These records can be more directly useful than domain or hosting data because they may identify the account action that produced the page. They still do not automatically identify the human user.

A public website is like the finished noticeboard; the platform may retain the key log, edit history and account permissions behind it.

Use exact page and account identifiers, dates and time zone. Distinguish records that show capability from those showing a particular event.