One-sentence brief
Indicators are easily mistaken for proof. Poorly specified signals can create false alarms, stigmatize populations, and encourage rights-infringing monitoring.
INTERNATIONAL EVENT LITERACY
How to review whether a proposed warning indicator is observable, specific, timely, independent, proportionate, privacy-preserving, and useful without becoming surveillance or targeting.
ORIENTATION
Indicators are easily mistaken for proof. Poorly specified signals can create false alarms, stigmatize populations, and encourage rights-infringing monitoring.
WORKING BRIEF
A valid indicator has a documented relationship to one premise, a measurement method, a time window, a base rate, and known alternative causes. It does not prove the branch occurred.
Ask how often the signal appears during ordinary conditions, reporting changes, seasonal cycles, defensive exercises, market volatility, or unrelated emergencies.
Multiple dashboards can repeat one underlying source. Count the independent measurements and institutions, not the number of visual panels.
Reject indicator designs that require private-person tracking, protected-trait inference, biometric surveillance, doxxing, account targeting, or coercive profiling.
Indicators need review horizons, ownership, correction routes, and sunset conditions. A stale signal must not remain visually current.
COMPLETE DOSSIER
Terms are defined for this site’s evidence method, not as universal legal or clinical definitions.
| Review object | Acceptable treatment | Prohibited implication |
|---|---|---|
| Signal | Define observable measure, time window, source, and uncertainty. | Treat a vague narrative cue as proof. |
| False alarm | Document ordinary and alternative causes. | Assume specificity from salience. |
| Rights | Use lawful, public, proportionate, privacy-minimized evidence. | Monitor private people or infer protected traits. |
| Sunset | Set review horizon and expiration trigger. | Let stale indicators remain indefinitely active. |
Is the indicator tied to one bounded proposition?
Pass condition: The field states what it can and cannot support.
Are ordinary occurrences and false alarms considered?
Pass condition: At least one alternative cause is documented.
Can the indicator be reviewed without private-person monitoring?
Pass condition: Operational use is false and prohibited inputs are explicit.
Does the indicator have a review horizon?
Pass condition: Staleness triggers retirement or reopening.
RESEARCH EDITION
This page follows the public method for provenance, confidence, source independence, alternative accounts, limitations, review state, and visible correction.
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