Security and data
What each party can see, and how that is enforced.
Written plainly, because the people who ask this question are usually the ones who have to answer for the answer.
Access is enforced at the database, not the screen
Sentinel runs on PostgreSQL with row level security. Every request carries the signed in user's organization and role, and the database itself decides which rows that session is allowed to return. A screen that should not show a figure does not receive that figure.
This matters because interface level permissions fail quietly. If access control lives in the front end, anyone who can reach the underlying interface can usually reach the data behind it. Putting the rule in the database means the same check applies to every path into the system.
The price wall
Sentinel is used by three parties with legitimately different views of the same job.
- A service provider sees their own cost and their own not to exceed figures.
- A building owner sees the price they are quoted and charged.
- A program manager, the party accountable for the program, sees both.
These are separate role scoped views over the same records rather than three copies of the data. Nothing is duplicated, so nothing drifts, and a party cannot reach the other side's figures by changing a request.
Where the data lives
- Application data is held in a managed PostgreSQL database hosted in the United States.
- The web application is served over HTTPS with certificates issued and renewed automatically. Traffic is encrypted in transit and data is encrypted at rest by the database provider.
- Uploaded files, including logos and job documentation, are stored in access controlled buckets scoped to the owning organization.
- Notification email is sent through an authenticated sending domain with SPF and DKIM in place, so messages from the platform can be verified as genuinely from it.
External participants
Some people need to act on one job without becoming users of the platform: a vendor taking a single dispatch, a property contact approving one proposal, an authority having jurisdiction receiving a record. Those people reach a single job through a link scoped to that job and nothing else. They get no account, no directory and no view of anything beyond the item they were sent.
Documents: holder, not approver
Where Sentinel holds certificates of insurance, licences or technician credentials, it holds them as a record keeper. It stores what was provided, when, and when it expires. It does not verify that a document is authentic or that a credential is currently in good standing, and it should not be relied on as evidence that anyone has confirmed either. Verification remains the responsibility of whoever is contractually required to perform it.
This distinction is deliberate. A platform that holds documents and a platform that approves them carry very different obligations, and quietly drifting from the first into the second would expose both us and our customers.
What we do not claim
Sentinel is an independently built platform in active development. We hold no third party security certification at this time, including SOC 2 and ISO 27001, and we do not claim compliance with frameworks we have not been audited against.
If your procurement process requires a specific attestation, tell us during evaluation rather than after. We would rather tell you what we do not have than let you discover it at contract.
Reporting a problem
If you believe you have found a security issue, write to will.stevie@clearlinefls.com with enough detail to reproduce it. Reports are read by a person, not a queue, and you will get an answer. Please do not test against other organizations' data.
Bring your security questions to the demo.
Including the ones we have not answered on this page.
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