Visibility controls

Share policies are how you control what data each customer can see. Every active connection has a share policy that determines which products are visible and at what level of detail.

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The principle: default deny

LinkXG operates on a default-deny basis. If you do not explicitly share something, the customer cannot see it. This means:

• Customers only see products you have included in the share policy
• Customers only see fields allowed by the visibility package you selected
• Your upstream suppliers are obfuscated by default

You are always in control.

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Visibility packages

Instead of configuring individual fields, you select a visibility package that bundles related fields into meaningful disclosure levels. Standard is the default for new connections. It provides enough information for most business purposes without exposing sensitive details.

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Configuring a share policy

Go to Connections, select a customer, and select Share policy.

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Product scope

Choose which products to share: If you select “All products”, new products you add will automatically be shared with this customer.

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Visibility package

Select the package that matches your disclosure intent. See the table above for what each package includes.

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Field overrides

For fine-tuning, you can override specific fields within your chosen package:

• Reveal a field that the package would normally hide
• Hide a field that the package would normally show

Overrides are limited to a defined set of fields to keep policies manageable.

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Upstream visibility

By default, your own suppliers — the inputs to your products — appear to your customers as obfuscated references like “Upstream Supplier U-1842”. Revealing any of them is a deliberate choice, and it only ever happens when both companies across a link agree. This is governed by two independent controls, both switched off by default and covered in full under Upstream profile visibility below:

• Whether your own profile may be seen by companies further down the chains you sell into.
• Whether you expose your suppliers’ profiles to your customers.

Nothing here can reveal a supplier that has not itself agreed to be seen, and no customer can force a supplier into view.

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How obfuscation works

When a customer views one of your products, they may see inputs from your own suppliers. By default, these upstream suppliers are protected: What the customer sees:

• “Upstream Supplier U-1842” (a pseudonym, not the real name)
• Country of origin (e.g., Germany)
• Certification presence (e.g., ISO 9001 ✓)
• Contribution type and quantity bands

What the customer does not see:

• The supplier’s legal name
• Specific location (city, address)
• Documents that might reveal identity

The pseudonym is stable for this customer — they will always see the same “U-1842” reference for the same supplier. But different customers get different pseudonyms, preventing them from cross-referencing your supply chain.

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Upstream profile visibility

Most of a supply chain is a fog of anonymous companies: past your direct suppliers and past your direct customers, everyone is a per-customer pseudonym. Upstream profile visibility lets that fog lift on purpose — one relationship at a time, and only when both companies across a link agree. There are two distinct things you control. They are independent, and both start switched off.

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1. Whether the companies you sell to can see who you are

This is about your own identity travelling upstream-to-downstream. When you turn it on, a customer of your customer — and companies further down the chains you sell into — may see your real company profile instead of a pseudonym.

• Allow my profile to be shared downstream — a single switch that opts you in across all the chains you sell into.
• Per-customer override — for a specific customer, allow or deny that customer’s own customers seeing you, whatever the global switch says.

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2. Whether your customers can see who your suppliers are

This is about your suppliers’ identities. When you turn it on, the companies you sell to may see the real profiles of the suppliers behind your products.

• Share our suppliers’ profiles with our customers — a single switch across all your suppliers.
• Per-supplier override — share, or withhold, one specific supplier.

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Mutual consent, one link at a time

A company one step further up a chain becomes visible to a company one step further down only when both ends of the link between them have agreed — the upstream company has allowed itself to be seen, and the company in the middle has agreed to pass it on. Neither half alone reveals anything. A company can never be exposed by someone else acting alone.

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The fog lifts as far as agreement reaches

Consent composes along the chain. Starting from a customer and walking upstream, each consented link reveals one more company. The first link that has not consented is the frontier: that company, and everything beyond it, stays anonymous. So one customer might see two steps up your chain because every link agreed that far, while a different customer, on a different path, sees a different depth.

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What a reveal shows

A reveal is all-or-nothing. A revealed company shows its full profile — the same information a direct connection sees (identity, registration details, certifications, facilities, attributes). There is no partial, field-by-field middle setting: a company that has agreed to be known by a partner is known, not half-known. A company that is not revealed shows only its pseudonym, exactly as before.

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Requests: turning a link on when asked

A company further down a chain can ask to see a company that has not yet been shared — you, or one of your suppliers. The request arrives in your Action Centre, where you can approve or decline it. Approving grants the reveal to that requester only — it does not expose the company to everyone. The standing switches above are the broad path; a request is the targeted one.

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You can always change your mind

Every switch is revocable. Turn one off and the affected companies return to their pseudonyms the next time a supply-chain graph is drawn — there is nothing cached to clear, and the change takes effect immediately.

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Making changes

You can update a share policy at any time:

• Add or remove products from scope
• Change the visibility package
• Adjust field overrides
• Reveal or re-obfuscate upstream suppliers

Changes take effect immediately for new data access. Previously shared snapshots are preserved for audit — you can always prove what was visible at a given point in time.

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Audit trail

Every access to your shared data is logged. Go to a connection’s Activity tab to see:

• When the customer accessed your data
• Which products they viewed
• What fields were returned (based on the policy at that time)

This audit trail supports compliance reporting and lets you demonstrate exactly what was shared with whom.

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Common questions

What is the default share policy for new connections? New connections use the Standard visibility package with All products in scope. You can change this immediately after accepting the connection or at any time afterwards. Can I have different policies for different products with the same customer? The share policy applies to the connection as a whole. If you need different visibility for different products, you can use field overrides or consider whether those products should be in separate categories with different sharing rules. What happens if I reduce visibility after sharing data? The customer immediately loses access to fields or products you have removed. They can no longer see that data. However, audit records of past access are preserved. Can a customer request more visibility? Yes. A company further down a chain can request that an upstream company be revealed to it. Requests appear in your Action Centre, and you can approve or decline. A reveal only completes when both companies across the link agree, and an approved request reveals the company to that requester alone. See Upstream profile visibility.

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Next steps