A practical 2026 checklist for provenance, labeling, and incident response

Most teams don’t fail because they ignore the problem — they fail because verification work stays as a research project instead of an operational system.

Use this checklist as a starting point:

1) Labeling: define when you will label synthetic media and where the label appears (UI, metadata, sidecar).

2) Proof signal: embed a durable marker at generation/export that can survive the common internet transformations (resize, recompress, trim, repost).

3) UID strategy: use a stable identifier that links to a minimal log record (time, tool, model version, account/org, region).

4) Verification output: return evidence, not just a score — recovered UID, confidence, and a short explanation of why the system believes the proof is present.

5) Human workflow: decide who reviews edge cases and what “escalation” means (freeze, takedown, review queue, legal).

6) Abuse response: define how you handle impersonation and non-consensual imagery (including AI-generated variants).

7) Retention: keep logs only as long as needed, with clear access controls and audit trails.

8) Metrics: track verification hit-rate, false positives/negatives, and time-to-resolution for incidents.

DeadMark + DeadDetect are built to plug into this checklist without forcing you to rewrite your product. The goal is quiet confidence: fast proof checks, explainable results, and a trail that stands up when it matters.

Note: this is not legal advice — treat it as an engineering and operations checklist and align it with counsel for your jurisdiction.