SenseDefend

Synthetic-media instruments, by article and effective date

Machine-readable, and the three things it means

Machine-readable describes a mark that software rather than a person can find. The phrase is used for a signed record in a container, for a signal hidden in the content, and loosely for any metadata at all. As of 2026-09-12.

Readable, and separately verifiableA field a reader can parse can also be written by anybody. A signed record can be checked against a key, so a reader learns not only what it says but that the stated author said it. Signing is what makes provenance evidence.What software can find, and how much it is worthOrdinary metadataDurations, codecs, timestamps. Says nothing about how contentwas made.An unsigned assertionReadable, and writable by anybody who can open the file.A signed recordCheckable against a key. A reader learns who asserted it.An embedded signalRecovered by a detector rather than parsed. Carries almostnothing.
Fig. 1 There is no partial version of a signature, which is why a stripped container is a total loss rather than a degraded one.
Machine-readable, as published. Recorded 2026-09-12.
Where the phrase is usedWhat it means there
In a transparency instrumentDetectable as generated, by software, in the output
Of a signed manifestA structured record beside the content, verifiable
Of an embedded signalA pattern in the content, recovered by a detector
On a product pageOften no more than the presence of some metadata

Inclusion rule. Usages encountered when reading instruments and vendor documentation. Colloquial uses that carry no distinct meaning are not listed. Order. From the most specific usage to the loosest.

1Software can find it is the whole of the requirement

The phrase does not name a technology, and it does not have to. What it asks is that something other than a person be able to establish a property of the file, which both a manifest and an embedded signal can do.

That leaves a great deal open. A mark only its author can read is machine-readable in the literal sense and useless to anybody else, which is why interoperability is named separately.

2Metadata is not a synonym

Every video file carries metadata: durations, codecs, timestamps, sometimes a camera model. None of that says anything about generation, and a page saying a file has metadata has not said anything on the subject.

The distinction that matters is whether a field asserts something about how the content was made, and whether anything about it resists being rewritten. Most metadata fails both tests.

3Readable and verifiable are different properties

A field a reader can parse can also be written by anybody. A signed record can be checked against a key, so a reader learns not only what it says but that the stated author said it.

Signing is what makes provenance evidence rather than an annotation. It is also what makes a stripped container a total loss: there is no partial version of a signature.

4What the word cannot settle

Whether a mark is present in a particular file is not answerable from any usage of the phrase. It is answerable by inspecting the file, and the file that matters is the copy an audience received.

So the phrase describes a class of mechanism and never a state of affairs. A register can record who uses it and about what; the rest belongs to whoever holds the delivered asset.

5Published material behind this entry

A term in this record: what it means, and what the published material says about it, each figure read on 2026-09-12. Related: Provenance, Content credentials.