Building a Privacy-Safe Case Library

A useful case library preserves what was written before an outcome and protects the people behind the record. Its job is disciplined review, not a portfolio of impressive results.

The privacy controls on this page are UAYA practice safeguards. They are not legal-compliance advice. Applicable privacy, recordkeeping, and publication duties may require separate qualified review.

Four privacy decisions before recording

Consent May this record be kept?

Record who agreed, what they agreed to, and whether the permission covers storage only or also later review.

Minimization What can be left out?

Remove names, exact locations, employers, case numbers, account details, and other identifiers not needed for the teaching task.

Retention and deletion When does the record end?

Set a review date, retention period, and deletion condition before storing the case.

Publication permission May any part be shared?

Storage permission is not publication permission. Obtain a separate decision and minimize again before sharing.

The safest default for course practice is a self-owned record that contains no other person’s private information.

The minimized case template

Case ID:
Case type: documented / recorded / reconstructed / invented / exercise
Consent basis or self-owned status:
Identifiers retained and why:
Publication permission: no / limited / yes, with scope
Retention review date:
Deletion condition:

Question as written before cast:
Intake decision and stakes:
Date and chart construction:
Declared source rule or UAYA course convention:
Selection and analysis record:
Bounded wording and uncertainty:
Outcome state: pending
Post-outcome note: blank until observed

Date and otherwise preserve the pre-outcome version using a method appropriate to your own notebook. The important rule is that later knowledge must not overwrite what was originally recorded.

Outcome states are review labels

State	Use
pending	The defined observation point has not arrived or has not been checked.
hit	The predeclared, observable statement matches the later record.
miss	It does not match. Keep both versions.
partial	Only a predeclared part matches; identify which part without rewriting the rest.
unresolved	The result cannot be checked from adequate evidence.

These labels support honest review. They do not by themselves justify percentages, confidence calibration, or a general claim about the method.

Deletion and learning records

Keeping a miss is an editorial rule only while the case may responsibly be retained. Privacy, consent withdrawal, or the planned deletion condition takes priority over preserving a learning example. When a record must be deleted, keep at most a non-identifying process note if that is permitted; otherwise delete it completely.

Never publish a case merely because details were removed. Context can still identify a person. Publication requires its own permission and review.

Stop condition

Do not store the case if consent is absent, identifiers cannot be minimized, retention has no end, or publication status is unclear. Do not collect another person’s consequential or private material for this course exercise.

Scope note: the consent, minimization, retention/deletion, publication-permission, and outcome-state fields are UAYA practice safeguards. They are not presented as a complete legal or regulatory framework.

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