Verification Policy

The three tiers

Every claim on an Organization Record is evaluated against three tiers. Tier 1 and Tier 2 checks are automatic and happen within seconds. Tier 3 is human review and applies to a specific set of cases described below.

Tier 1 — Email domain match

• Required. The claimant's verified email domain matches a domain on record for the organization (SAM.gov POC domain, publicly-listed organization website domain, or an accepted alias).
• Purpose. Establishes that the claimant has an email address at the organization they are claiming.
• Anti-spoofing. Domain mismatch is a hard gate. A claim submitted from an unrelated email (@gmail.com, @outlook.com, a look-alike domain) cannot pass Tier 1 auto-verification and is routed to Tier 3.

Tier 2 — Institutional identity

• Required. The organization has an active UEI and CAGE code in the KG canonical, sourced from SAM.gov. The claim must reference a matching UEI.
• Purpose. Confirms the organization is real, federally registered, and currently able to receive contracts. The CAGE code additionally confirms DUNS-era establishment identity.
• Notification. Every submitted claim triggers an email notification to the SAM.gov point-of- contact on record. A silent claim never happens.
• Skip conditions. Organizations without a CAGE (small pre-registration entities, some university departments) skip Tier 2 auto-pass and route to Tier 3 for documented review.

Tier 3 — Manual admin review

• When applied. Universities, international organizations, any claim on an unregistered entity, any claim where Tier 1 domain match failed, or any claim that trips an anti-spoofing gate.
• What review evaluates. Delegation documentation (signed authority letter, corporate registry entry, letterhead from a senior officer), DNS TXT proof for domain-mismatch cases, and consistency of the submitted attestation with the underlying public record.
• Response. Approved (record advances to VERIFIED), rejected with reason, or requested for additional documentation. Timelines under "How long verification takes" below.

Rate limits and audit

• Claims are rate-limited per user and per organization (UEI). Multi-account or high-volume claim attempts trigger automated throttling and admin flagging.
• Every claim, every state transition, and every admin decision is recorded in the record's audit history and cannot be silently rewritten.

What each badge means

Badges appear on the public Organization Record. They describe verification state, not organizational quality — Bearings Network does not rate, score, or rank organizations.

• PUBLIC RECORD — Assembled from public sources only. No party has claimed the record.
• CLAIMED — A party has submitted a claim. Public-source facts remain sourced; organization- provided fields (once published) will carry the claimant as their author.
• IDENTITY VERIFIED — Tier 1 and Tier 2 checks passed. Institutional identity is confirmed against public sources.
• IDENTITY VERIFIED + AUTHORITY REVIEWED — Tier 3 review completed with an additional documented authority signal (delegation letter, senior-officer letterhead, DNS proof). The strongest state a record can hold.
• VERIFIED · STALE — Verified, but the underlying SAM.gov registration or claimant-freshness markers have lapsed. See "Freshness" below.
• DISPUTED — A fact-level or ownership dispute is open on the record. See Correction and Dispute Policy.
• ARCHIVED — The organization has requested the record be hidden from the public directory. The underlying public-source provenance is preserved for audit.

What verification is not

• Not an endorsement. A VERIFIED badge means the party claiming the record is who they say they are. It does not mean Bearings Network vouches for capabilities, performance, or fit for a specific contract.
• Not a security clearance. Verification is about institutional identity, not personnel clearances or facility-security posture.
• Not a substitute for CMMC or DFARS review. Buyers evaluating a supplier for a controlled contract should perform their own compliance review.
• Not purchasable. Verification tier cannot be bought or accelerated by paying — the check requirements are the same for every claim.

Freshness

A verified record can go stale. Freshness signals help readers distinguish an actively-maintained record from one that has lapsed.

• SAM.gov registration status is refreshed nightly. If SAM shows the registration as Expired or Inactive, the record surfaces a "SAM: Inactive" chip and, if it persists, the badge switches to VERIFIED · STALE.
• Capacity attestations (facility capacity, availability percentages) carry an explicit "confirmed at" date. Attestations older than 90 days display a "STALE" label; older than 180 days require re-confirmation before Anonymous Matching uses them.
• Claim ownership is confirmed annually via an email prompt to the claimant. Two consecutive missed refresh cycles trigger a review — the record is not automatically demoted, but it is flagged for admin attention and may accept a competing claim more readily.
• Evidence links are re-checked periodically for accessibility. Broken links are labeled and the field they support loses its evidence-backed styling until the link is fixed.

How long verification takes

• Tier 1 + Tier 2 pass — seconds. Automated. The record shows IDENTITY VERIFIED immediately.
• Tier 3 review — typically 3 business days, subject to how much documentation the claim submits. Complex international or university claims may take up to 10 business days.
• Domain-mismatch DNS proof — DNS TXT record must be visible to Bearings Network's resolver before the claim can advance. Propagation is typically under an hour but depends on the DNS provider.

Revoking verification

A verified state can be revoked if the underlying signals no longer support it.

• Ownership dispute upheld — the record reverts to CLAIMED under the new authorized party, or returns to PUBLIC RECORD if no party is currently authorized.
• SAM.gov delisting — the underlying organization is delisted from SAM.gov and does not re-register within a grace period.
• Deliberate falsification — verification- washing, fabricated evidence, or attempted spoofing results in immediate revocation and, per the Acceptable Use Policy, permanent removal of the responsible account.

Changes to this policy

Changes are dated in the "Last reviewed" line at the top of this page. Changes to the tier requirements or badge meanings are announced to claimants via the in-app notification matrix.