Source Registry
Short answer (≤75 words)
The source registry lists the source families used across Private Pierce research, how they are tiered, and which primary sources back each claim category. Every load-bearing factual claim on the site traces to a source in this registry or carries a typed unknown. Pages are updated as sources and systems change; source families are updated when new source types are added.
What this page is
A directory of source families, source tiers, and citation discipline. It complements the methodology page (/about/methodology/) by listing specific sources and their roles, rather than the abstract research process.
Source families
Tier 1 — Secretary of State portals and forms
State business registries, formation forms, annual-report instructions, UCC portals. These are primary sources for formation-exposure claims. Evidence gathered by direct portal observation or bulk-data snapshot.
Tier 2 — Federal regulators
FinCEN (BOI / CTA), FTC (data broker orders), IRS (EIN / tax filing exposure), Treasury (OFAC, sanctions), CISA (critical infrastructure), CBP (travel / entry). Primary sources for BOI, KYC, and federal-reporting claims.
Tier 3 — State regulators
Attorney general, privacy regulator, consumer-protection office, tax agency. Primary sources for state-law claims about data brokers, right to delete, and privacy legislation.
Tier 4 — Court and recorder portals
PACER, state court portals, county recorders, property assessors. Primary sources for court-record and lien-record exposure claims.
Tier 5 — Official portal-behavior observations
Direct WebFetch or browser tests of public portals with date and access method recorded. Primary sources for searchability and field-visibility claims where portal behavior is the fact being measured.
Tier 6 — Company documentation
Bank KYC policies, card-issuer terms, loyalty-program terms. Primary sources for financial and travel system exposure claims.
Tier 7 — International regulators
Telecom regulators, data-protection authorities (GDPR), immigration agencies. Sources for cross-border exposure claims.
Tier 8 — Law trackers
NCSL, IAPP, UNCTAD, Freedom House, GSMA. Used as cross-checks on regulatory-landscape claims, not as primary sources for specific legal facts.
Tier 9 — Reputable reports
Industry, academic, and policy reports. Used for aggregate or survey-derived claims where no primary-official source exists.
Tier 10 — Journalism
For reputation-surface and OSINT context; not used as primary sources for legal or regulatory claims.
Citation discipline
Secondary sources cross-check primary sources. Critical claims do not rely on secondary-only evidence unless explicitly tagged. Every claim that cannot be sourced carries a typed unknown rather than a silent gap.
The full methodology is at /about/methodology/. The dataset catalog, which lists machine-readable evidence companions, is at /about/dataset-catalog/.
Frequently asked questions
What tier are FinCEN BOI rules?
Tier 2 federal regulators — primary for /boi-kyc/foreign-reporting-company-boi-rules/ (90 FR 13688, March 2025 IFR).
Can journalism be a primary source for legal claims?
No — journalism is tier 10 for reputation/OSINT context, not primary for statutory claims per this registry.
Where do typed unknowns appear?
Matrix cells when portals are CAPTCHA-blocked or SPAs are not observable — see /about/methodology/.
How is this different from dataset catalog?
Source registry lists families and tiers; dataset catalog lists machine-readable mirrors per page.
When are source families updated?
When new source types are added or regulators publish trigger events — not on a fixed schedule alone.
Go deeper with source-backed research
Explore methodology, datasets, and related matrices cited on this page.