Start with the source
Each record includes its regulator, reporting scheme, threshold, coverage, named role, revision and source link. A notification count is not necessarily a count of unique incidents.
Four kinds of record
Statistics and anonymous report summaries contain no named organisations. Named notifications and regulator actions have their own record types and views. They are not added together as a breach total.
Dates are not interchangeable
When something happened, when it was discovered, when it was reported and when it was published can all differ. Breach Gazette also records when it observed a source. Changes to collected records are recorded separately.
Chronology exclusions
The reviewed California rule excludes an occurrence date from normalised uses when it follows regulator submission, while retaining the raw source value. Other sources do not inherit this rule.
Candidate date evidence
Candidates require an exact organisation-name match, different sources, and an identical published calendar date. Date meanings may differ. This is not interval matching or proof of one incident.
Cross-country comparisons
Breach Gazette compares like-for-like measures only when thresholds, periods, population scopes, and units are displayed. It does not publish a generic country ranking.