Audit Trail
The immutable, tamper-proof event ledger for the entire Civic platform — every module that needs activity logging, compliance evidence, or forensic investigation writes to Audit Trail.
Uptime SLA
Write Latency
Throughput
Hash Chain
Purpose-Built for Canadian Municipalities
How It Works
The identity journey, step by step
From first registration to golden record resolution — how a resident's identity evolves across the platform.
PII Access Review
A privacy officer investigates who accessed a citizen's personal data in the last 90 days.
How it works
The privacy officer navigates to the compliance dashboard, enters the citizen's ID, and pulls a complete PII access report. The report lists every staff member who viewed the citizen's data, which fields they accessed, the purpose code, and the timestamp — ready for IPC audit submission.
Step 1 of 5
Purpose & Scope
What this module owns
Clear ownership boundaries prevent duplication and ensure every capability has exactly one authoritative home.
Owns
10Delegated to
4Access control enforcement
Notification delivery
Data storage of audited entities
Real-time monitoring / alerting
These capabilities are handled by dedicated modules and consumed via stable API contracts — keeping boundaries clean and ownership unambiguous.
Core Capabilities
What it does
4 capability groups comprising 7 discrete capabilities — each with API surface, business rules, and data ownership.
Events can only be created, never updated or deleted — with SHA-256 hash chain forming a tamper-evident ledger.
Append-Only
Events can only be created, never updated or deleted (database-level enforcement).
Hash Chain
Each event includes SHA-256 hash of the previous event, forming a tamper-evident chain.
Integrity Verification
Scheduled integrity checks verify hash chain continuity; any broken link raises a security alert.
Partitioning
Events partitioned by month for performance; archived partitions moved to cold storage after retention period.
Compression
Archived partitions compressed (ZSTD) to reduce storage costs.
Nine event categories with configurable retention periods ranging from 2 to 10 years — authentication, authorization, data access, modification, workflow, financial, compliance, system, and security.
Authentication
Login success/failure, logout, MFA challenge, session timeout — 2-year retention.
Authorization
Permission granted/denied, role change, privilege escalation — 7-year retention.
Data Access
PII viewed, report generated, data exported, bulk download — 7-year retention.
Data Modification
Record created, updated, deleted (soft), field changed — 7-year retention.
Financial & Compliance
Payment processed, refund issued, consent granted/revoked, FOI request — 10-year retention.
Security
Brute force detected, IP blocked, suspicious activity, admin override — 10-year retention.
Real-World Scenarios
Who uses this, and how
4 persona-driven scenarios showing how Audit Trail works in practice — from resident registration to privacy compliance.
Privacy Officer
Freedom of Information Request
A citizen submits an FOI request asking who has accessed their personal information in the past year.
Steps
- 1Privacy officer receives the FOI request and logs into the audit compliance dashboard
- 2Searches for the citizen by ID and selects 'Generate PII Access Report'
- 3System queries all data_access events where the citizen's entity_id appears and pii_fields_accessed is populated
- 4Report generated showing each access: staff name, role, fields viewed, purpose code, timestamp
- 5Privacy officer reviews for any accesses without valid purpose codes
- 6Exports the report as a PDF with integrity attestation for the FOI response
Outcome
Complete, tamper-evident PII access history delivered to the citizen within the MFIPPA response timeline, proving municipal compliance with privacy regulations.
View scenario
IT Security Analyst
Suspicious Access Pattern Investigation
An audit.security_anomaly event fires because a staff member accessed 150 citizen records in one hour during off-hours.
Steps
- 1Security analyst receives the anomaly alert via notification-engine
- 2Opens the audit trail search and filters by the flagged actor_id and time window
- 3Reviews the 150 events — all data_access category, PII fields include SIN and date of birth
- 4Cross-references with the user's normal access pattern (typically 10-15 records/day)
- 5Checks the purpose codes — all show 'service_delivery' but the user is in a non-service role
- 6Escalates to security manager with the full event timeline and user profile
Outcome
Potential data breach identified and escalated within 30 minutes. Full forensic timeline preserved in the immutable audit store for investigation and potential disciplinary or legal proceedings.
View scenario
External Auditor
Annual SOC 2 Compliance Audit
An external auditor needs to verify that all platform actions are logged with appropriate controls for SOC 2 certification.
Steps
- 1Auditor requests sample audit events across all nine categories for the audit period
- 2Finance staff runs the compliance export for the requested date range and categories
- 3Auditor verifies hash chain integrity using the attestation certificate
- 4Reviews event completeness: every login, data access, modification, and administrative action logged
- 5Validates retention policies match documented controls — 7 years for data, 10 years for financial
- 6Confirms anomaly detection and alerting are active and functioning
Outcome
SOC 2 audit evidence delivered with tamper-proof integrity attestation. Hash chain verification confirms zero modifications to historical events.
View scenario
Municipal Legal Counsel
Court Evidence Chain of Custody
A bylaw enforcement case goes to court and the defendant challenges the integrity of the inspection records.
Steps
- 1Legal counsel requests the full change history for the disputed inspection entity
- 2Audit trail provides chronological event log: creation, each status change, inspector notes, photos uploaded
- 3Before/after snapshots show exact field-level changes at each step with timestamps and actor attribution
- 4Hash chain integrity report proves no records have been altered since original creation
- 5Export generated with integrity attestation certificate for court submission
Outcome
Court accepts the audit trail as admissible evidence. Hash chain integrity proves non-tampering and the before/after snapshots provide a complete, uncontested record of the inspection process.
View scenario
Internal Architecture
How it's built
4 architectural layers comprising 24 components — from API gateway to data quality engine.
4 layers · 24 total components
Audit Trail
Every module owns a single bounded context, exposes stable APIs, and can be composed into any Civic product — that's the architecture that scales.
Krutik Parikh
Creator of Civic
Data Model
Entity Architecture
3 entities with 3 relationships — the authoritative schema for this bounded context.
Entities
Select an entity to explore its fields and relationships
API Surface
Integration Endpoints
11 RESTful endpoints across 3 resource groups — plus 4 domain events for async integration.
/api/v1/audit/events
Record a single audit event
/api/v1/audit/events/batch
Record multiple audit events (bulk)
Ecosystem
Products that depend on this module
11 Civic products consume Audit Trail — making it one of the most critical platform services in the ecosystem.
CRM
Citizen PII access logging, case note authorship, delegation tracking
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Digital Payments
PCI-DSS Requirement 10, cardholder data access, refund authorization
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HR & Payroll
Employee record access, SIN field access logging, payroll approval
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Property Tax
Assessment change tracking, tax account modifications, appeal history
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Court / POA
Chain of custody for evidence, sentencing decisions, payment history
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Licences & Permits
Inspection results, condition modifications, fee adjustments
View product →
Council & Agenda
Bylaw amendments, recorded vote tallying, declaration of interest
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Elections
Voter eligibility checks, ballot handling, recount processes
View product →
Social Housing
Waitlist position changes, tenant selection rationale, income verification access
View product →
Document & Records
FOI request processing, destruction authorization, access tracking
View product →
Security Platform
SIEM integration, incident response, vulnerability tracking
View product →
Technical Specifications
Performance, Compliance & Configuration
Availability
Write Latency
Search Latency
Throughput
Storage
Integrity
Retention
Disaster Recovery
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
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