Classification
Classification is your organization’s vocabulary for how sensitive a piece of information is. You define the levels once; the rest of the product attaches them to forms, documents, and responses so that handling rules can be applied consistently.
Configuration lives under Settings → Governance → Classifications and requires the classification manage permission.
Why classify
You’re classifying so that:
- People filling in forms know what kind of information they’re dealing with.
- Reviewers can filter and prioritize by sensitivity.
- Downstream handling rules (retention, sharing, export) can be tied to a level rather than applied case-by-case.
- Compliance reviews have a clean answer to “how do you categorize sensitive data?”.
If you don’t define levels yourself, the system provides a sensible default set you can start with.
What a level is
A classification level has these pieces:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Label | The short, human name (for example “Confidential”, “Public”, “Restricted”). Shown anywhere a level is displayed. |
| Description | One or two sentences describing what falls into this level. Helps your team apply it consistently. |
| Rank | A number that orders levels from least to most sensitive. Used for filtering and for the “this is at least Confidential” style of rule. |
| Severity | A handling severity tag (one of none, low, medium, high, critical). Drives visual emphasis and downstream policy hooks. |
| Handling rules | Free-form notes on how this level should be handled (retention, distribution, access). Encrypted at rest. |
| Default | Whether this level is applied automatically when the user doesn’t pick one. |
| Required | Whether the level must be set on objects that support it (rather than left blank). |
A typical set
A starter taxonomy that works for many organizations:
| Label | Rank | Severity | When to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public | 1 | low | Information that may be shared freely outside the organization. |
| Internal | 2 | medium | Day-to-day organization material. Default for most forms. |
| Confidential | 3 | high | Sensitive material requiring restricted access (HR, finance, legal). |
| Restricted | 4 | critical | Material requiring tightly controlled handling — typically named recipients only. |
You’re not obliged to use these. Many regulated industries have their own taxonomies that should map directly: define your levels to mirror them.
Creating and editing levels
- Open Settings → Governance → Classifications.
- Click New level (or pick an existing level to edit).
- Fill in label, description, rank, severity.
- Add handling rules — what people should and shouldn’t do with content at this level.
- Decide whether it’s the default or required.
- Save. The change is audited.
Editing a level updates the definition for everywhere it’s referenced. If you change a label, existing tagged content immediately reflects the new label.
Archiving a level
You can’t delete a level once it’s been used (because doing so would orphan tagged content), but you can archive it. An archived level:
- Stops appearing as an option for new tagging.
- Remains visible on content that was already tagged with it.
- Can be unarchived later.
Use archiving when you want to retire a deprecated level cleanly without rewriting history.
Where classification shows up
Levels you define flow into other parts of the product:
- Forms. When publishing a form template, you can pick a classification level for the form and for individual fields within it. The level becomes part of the response evidence.
- Documents and artifacts. Files uploaded into the workspace can be tagged.
- Public sessions. Sessions sent to external participants can carry a classification, which affects how the session is presented and what handling notes are surfaced.
Classification is descriptive and evidence-bearing: it labels content and is captured in the audit trail. The levels are how you make the policy visible, and handling of those levels is carried out as a manual process backed by audit.
Cloud vs Sovereign
The classification model is the same in both deployments. Each organization defines its own levels; they are not shared across organizations.
In Sovereign, classification definitions are encrypted under the organization’s keyring like the rest of the organization’s sensitive data — including the handling-rules text, which often contains organization-specific procedures you don’t want leaked.
Related
- Roles & Permissions — who can manage levels (admins, by default).
- Audit Log — every level change and every tagging action is recorded.