Sovereignty and trust
Your evidence never leaves your building.
The default is fully offline and sovereign: the workstation, or your own server, with nothing leaving the building. The questions below are answered for that default.
- Offline and sovereign by default
- No telemetry, no vendor remote access
- Models run on your hardware
The architecture, in one paragraph
A closed deployment inside your perimeter.
VERA is installed as a client on analyst workstations, with a central inference server on your own intranet when you want one. Evidence is read from your own storage, read only. There is no telemetry and no licence check over the internet. Unplug the network and the work continues.
One option sits beside that default, and you have to select it: At VERA Forensics. It sends the text of a query, not the case files, mainly to processors in the United States. It is off until you choose it. VERA is also in service at the Service National de Police Scientifique. That names one laboratory, not the only kind of organisation the software is for.
The best way to test this is to unplug the network cable during the demonstration and carry on working. It is the first thing we suggest.
Data flows
What leaves, and what stays.
Never leaves your network
- Extractions and every record derived from them.
- Case, seal and device identifiers.
- Search queries and assistant conversations.
- Audit logs and user activity.
- Mappings, unless you choose to contribute them to a library you host.
Stays on the analyst workstation
- Raw evidence access, which is read only at every stage.
- The evidence store itself, which the inference server never reads.
- Local case state and the examiner's working context.
Only if you select At VERA Forensics
- The query text, search or assistant extracts, and audio for transcription when used. Case files stay on the workstation.
- That path goes mainly through processors in the United States. Reranking goes to a processor in Germany. The names are in the privacy policy.
- Usage is metered for credits. The content is not kept.
Security review
The questionnaire, answered before you send it.
These are the questions that arrive in every security review. Answering them here saves a round trip, and it lets you judge the answers without a sales conversation attached.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Does the software require internet access? | No. The default is offline: nothing is sent at startup, and there is no licence check over the internet. If you select At VERA Forensics, that one placement calls our API after sign-in and consent. The others do not. |
| Does the vendor have remote access? | No. There is no remote support tunnel, no maintenance access and no mechanism by which we could reach a deployment. |
| Is there telemetry or usage reporting? | No. The software sends no telemetry. Only if you select At VERA Forensics is usage metered for credits, and the query text is not stored. |
| Where is investigation data processed? | On your infrastructure. That is the default, and it is fully offline. Raw evidence stays on the analyst workstation. Your own server, if you use one, stays on your network. Only if you select At VERA Forensics does the query text leave, not the case files, mainly to the United States. |
| Is evidence access read only? | Yes, at every stage of the pipeline. The evidence store is never opened with write access. |
| What is logged, and where does the log live? | Every assistant action and every result is written to an audit log, held inside your deployment and readable by you. |
| Which AI models are used, and who controls them? | On your hardware, and you choose them. That is the default. Only if you select At VERA Forensics does VERA Forensics choose the models. You still do not choose the processor. The names are in the privacy policy. |
| Can data reach a third-party AI provider? | No, not by default. The workstation and your server never do. Only if you select At VERA Forensics does the query text go to processors, mainly in the United States. That selection is explicit and needs consent. The names are in the privacy policy. |
| How are updates delivered? | As packages you receive and install on your own schedule. Nothing updates itself over a network connection. |
| Who at the vendor can see our data? | Nobody. There is no access to your deployment and no copy of your case. Only the extracts you send after selecting At VERA Forensics pass through our API, mainly to processors in the United States. We do not keep that content. |
| What happens to data if the contract ends? | They stay where they were: on your infrastructure. That was always true of the default. VERA Forensics does not keep extracts sent through the optional placement either. You remove the software and your files remain. |
| Is there a data processing agreement to sign? | For the default, you remain the sole controller and processor. A processing agreement applies only if you select At VERA Forensics, because that option sends extracts off your network. |
| Can we run our own penetration test? | Yes. Test the deployment in your environment under whatever conditions your policy requires, and send us the findings. |
| What about supply chain and dependencies? | A dependency inventory for the deployed version is provided on request under the confidentiality frame described below. |
If your review asks something not covered here, write to alexandre@veraforensics.com and the answer will be added to this page.
Data protection
GDPR, in the position that actually applies.
By default, no investigation data reaches us or any third party. The software is offline. At VERA Forensics is a separate option: if you select it, query text can leave, mainly outside the European Union, after consent. The names are in the privacy policy.
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You remain the controller
Your service determines the purposes and means of processing, as it already does for the evidence itself. Nothing about that changes when VERA is installed.
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Sovereign by default
The workstation and your own server export nothing, and they need no network. At VERA Forensics stays off until you select it. If you do, extracts go mainly to the United States.
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Retention is yours to set
Data lives in your storage under your retention rules. The software imposes no retention of its own and holds no copy anywhere else.
Accessibility
EN 301 549, answered specifically rather than with a badge.
Accessibility is a procurement requirement in European public purchasing, and a blanket conformance claim from a small vendor is worth very little. So here is the precise position. This website is built to WCAG 2.1 AA: semantic structure, keyboard operation throughout, visible focus, contrast checked against the palette, and every animation reduced to its end state when the visitor has asked for reduced motion.
For the product interface, tell us which criteria your tender applies and we will answer them one at a time, including the ones where the current answer is not yet what you need. That is more useful to an evaluator than a badge, and it is the only claim we can make and keep.
Deployment
What installing it actually involves.
A closed-network deployment removes most of the steps a normal software rollout requires. There is no account provisioning, no identity federation with an external service and no network exception to negotiate.
- 01
Scoping
We agree what hardware the inference server will run on and how many analyst workstations are involved. That conversation is short, and it is the point at which the shape of the licence is settled.
- 02
Installation on your hardware
Each workstation gets one installer. For the service, your team installs either the standard server on Mac, Windows or Linux, or the package for a Linux machine with a graphics card, from files downloaded once from your account, with us available for the session. Models are added by copying a folder, so no outbound access is required at any point.
- 03
Your own security testing
Run whatever your policy requires before the software touches a real seal. We would rather you find something than not look.
- 04
A first real seal
The first case run through the deployment is the real test of coverage, and it is where the shared library starts paying for itself.
- 05
Handover and documentation
The deployment is documented so that it runs without us. That is not a courtesy, it is the answer to the continuity question a service is right to ask a small vendor.
Commercial model
How the licence is structured.
Figures depend on the shape of a deployment and are given on request. The structure is not confidential, and publishing it costs nothing while answering the first question procurement asks.
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Annual licence per organisation
Not per seat. The deployment is centralised, so charging per analyst would price a shared server as though it were a set of desktops.
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Pilot arrangements
A pilot small enough that procurement is not the difficult part is usually the right first step, and below the direct-award threshold no formal procedure is required.
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Source escrow
Escrow and a perpetual licence on the deployed version can both go into the contract. Continuity is a fair concern and it has a contractual answer.
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No upstream licence
VERA does not require you to hold a licence for any acquisition suite. There is no second vendor in the cost of running it.
Documents
The security brief and the capability statement.
A written security brief and a two-page capability statement are available for internal circulation inside your service. Both are issued per recipient, carry a confidentiality marking, and are sent through a private link rather than as an attachment.
Ask for them by writing to us, or request a demonstration and they will come with the follow-up.
Test the sovereignty claim yourself.
Ask for the network cable to be unplugged during the demonstration and watch what keeps running. It takes ten seconds and it settles the argument better than any document.
Every request is reviewed before access is granted.