Field notes

Field notes.

Notes from the team. 75 entries.

Written by the team that runs the watch. Notes from the work, posted because some of you read them and they make our thinking clearer to share.

2026-05-01 by Mateo Reis
Three things our system caught this week

What the alert pipeline surfaced for clients this week, in plain language.

2026-04-28 by Wei Chen
Why we watch Binance even if you don't use it

On indirect exposure and why our exchange-watch list is not bound to what you trade on.

2026-04-21 by Yelena Volkova
The morning a war signal flagged on our system

On real-time geopolitical monitoring and what it actually does for the people we watch over.

2026-04-17 by Kerem Albayrak
What we mean by private watch

Founder's note. What we are and what it isn't, in plain language.

2026-04-14 by Mateo Reis
I rewrote the alert pipeline this month

Notes from the systems side. Why the old version drowned us in noise and what we replaced it with.

2026-04-07 by Yelena Volkova
I added a new sanctions feed to the system this week

Short technical note on something we expanded in the wealth-watch.

2026-03-31 by Wei Chen
How we monitor data brokers, and how we get you removed

An explanation of one of the more boring but valuable parts of the watch.

2026-03-20 by Yelena Volkova
When an exchange pauses withdrawals

Reading the difference between operational maintenance and something more concerning.

2026-03-17 by Kerem Albayrak
What we do during your first thirty days

What an interested client should expect from the first month with we.

2026-03-06 by Yelena Volkova
OFAC sanctions, in three minutes

A simple explainer for clients who keep meaning to ask but haven't.

2026-02-27 by Mateo Reis
I rewrote the systems this quarter. Short version.

Notes from the rebuild that landed in production last week.

2026-02-24 by Kerem Albayrak
Why we extend coverage to family

A note on why family is part of the watch on Cover and Standing.

2026-02-17 by Yelena Volkova
Reading custodian quarterly disclosures

What's actually in the footnotes that the press never covers.

2026-02-06 by Yelena Volkova
Real estate registry leakage, plain language

How your home address ends up on the public record without you putting it there.

2026-02-03 by Kerem Albayrak
Private intelligence vs public OSINT, the difference that matters

Why a closed register beats public-record tools when something material moves.

2026-01-30 by Yelena Volkova
Sanctions enforcement is accelerating in 2026

Three patterns we are seeing across UK, US, and EU enforcement cycles.

2026-01-27 by Wei Chen
The five most exposed data points on the open record

What we find on day one of every engagement, ranked by frequency.

2026-01-23 by Yelena Volkova
Beneficial ownership registries, country by country

Where ownership records are public, where they are not, and what changed this year.

2026-01-20 by Wei Chen
Crypto exchange health metrics that actually matter

Three metrics we track that precede most withdrawal pauses by hours.

2026-01-16 by Mateo Reis
Pre-travel briefings for HNW individuals, what is in one

A walkthrough of what a Standing or Reserve pre-travel briefing actually contains.

2026-01-13 by Kerem Albayrak
The reading discipline behind continuous monitoring

Why we have rules about how senior reads happen and what they cover.

2026-01-09 by Wei Chen
Court records and what they say about you

The structural read on public court records that touch your file, by jurisdiction.

2026-01-06 by Mateo Reis
Standing tier escalation patterns, three months of data

What actually triggers an urgent voice escalation, and what does not.

2026-01-02 by Kerem Albayrak
What a real-time alert actually looks like

An anonymised example of a real-time alert from the encrypted channel.

2025-12-30 by Wei Chen
Yacht and aircraft registry leakage, what is on the record

What public registries say about you when you own a yacht or aircraft.

2025-12-26 by Yelena Volkova
Quarterly portfolio receipt review, what we look for

How we read the financial-side picture each quarter, in summary.

2025-12-23 by Kerem Albayrak
School directories and child safety on the open record

What private schools and youth programmes routinely publish, and what we do about it.

2025-12-19 by Mateo Reis
Monthly system update, April 2026

What changed in the system over April: new sources, calibrations, retired feeds.

2025-12-16 by Yelena Volkova
Insurance underwriting and the identity question

What underwriters check, what they cannot, and how it changes the file.

2025-12-12 by Kerem Albayrak
How we handle incoming press enquiries about clients

What happens when a journalist contacts us looking for comment on a client.

2026-02-03 by Kerem Albayrak
Why we offer an anonymous option, and how it works

Some clients never tell us who they are. The system is built for that.

2026-01-30 by Yelena Volkova
What changed across the system in March

Brief monthly note on what we shipped, expanded, or rewrote.

2026-01-27 by Kerem Albayrak
How the voice line works on Standing

What happens when something needs you on the phone, and the protocol that wraps around it.

2026-01-23 by Mateo Reis
What we mean by real-time

The system processes signals continuously. Here's what that actually delivers.

2026-01-20 by Yelena Volkova
What's in the quarterly review call

Cover and Standing clients get a sit-down with the team every quarter. Here's what it covers.

2026-01-13 by Kerem Albayrak
Why we called them Watch, Cover, and Standing

Plain words for plain things.

2026-01-09 by Wei Chen
What a Residence Check actually involves

A quiet walk through the optional module.

2026-01-06 by Yelena Volkova
The bank corridor that quietly closed

A note on watching for what banks don't say.

2026-01-02 by Wei Chen
Breach database quality is improving this year

A note on the state of the underlying data we read.

2025-12-30 by Yelena Volkova
Why we read the press cycle last

A discipline we hold to. The press is rarely wrong, but it's almost always too late.

2025-12-26 by Yelena Volkova
Sanctions cycles, in three minutes

A simple explainer of how sanctions work, for clients who want to understand the cadence.

2025-12-23 by Yelena Volkova
The morning brief: format, length, what's in it

A description of what arrives at 7am your local time.

2025-12-19 by Wei Chen
Data broker removals in numbers

Across the client base, a snapshot of how many removals we run per quarter.

2025-12-16 by Kerem Albayrak
How we set up a new client quietly

Onboarding is mostly invisible. Here's how that's possible.

2025-12-12 by Mateo Reis
How we use AI, and how we don't

A clear, no-mystique note on the role data analysis plays in the watch.

2025-12-09 by Yelena Volkova
How we handled a major exchange pause last week

Real-time exchange events are something we built for.

2025-12-02 by Kerem Albayrak
Why identity and wealth are the same problem

Founder's note on why we run them together rather than as separate services.

2025-11-25 by Kerem Albayrak
How we think about pricing

A short note on why the prices look the way they look.

2025-11-21 by Wei Chen
How we watch crypto wallets without holding keys

Address-level monitoring with no custody, no signatures, no risk to the member.

2025-11-18 by Wei Chen
Why we watch school directories

A quieter part of family coverage. Worth understanding why we do it.

2025-11-11 by Kerem Albayrak
There are no photographs of us on this site

Short note. We want this to be clear.

2025-11-07 by Kerem Albayrak
A short year-in-review

Kerem Albayrak Consulting's first six months in operation.

2025-11-04 by Wei Chen
How the encrypted channel works

Cover and Standing clients get a two-way line into the team. Here's the technical shape.

2025-10-31 by Yelena Volkova
Our approach to banking-side watch

What we read, why, and how often.

2025-10-28 by Wei Chen
The Singapore corridor, plain language

Why so many of our clients touch Singapore in some way.

2025-10-24 by Kerem Albayrak
Our quarterly calibration

Once a quarter we score everything we did and adjust how the team reads.

2025-10-21 by Mateo Reis
What I shipped in November

Monthly systems note. New sources added, things I rebuilt, what's coming.

2025-10-17 by Yelena Volkova
What's in a pre-travel briefing

Standing clients can ask for one before any trip.

2025-10-14 by Mateo Reis
How we pick sources for the system

Notes on what makes a source worth integrating and what makes it noise.

2025-10-10 by Yelena Volkova
Watch on yachts and aircraft, briefly

Most clients don't have either. Some do. For those, this is a coverage note.

2025-10-03 by Kerem Albayrak
What Cover actually adds over Watch

A plain comparison.

2025-09-30 by Kerem Albayrak
How an anonymous client actually works on the system

We get asked this often. Mechanics, plain language.

2025-09-26 by Wei Chen
The data we keep on clients

What we keep. Where we keep it. What we do not keep.

2025-09-23 by Kerem Albayrak
The three rules that don't move

Founder's note on the things we won't change.

2025-09-19 by Kerem Albayrak
A real case, anonymised

We don't publish case studies but it helps to describe what a real case looked like.

2025-09-16 by Mateo Reis
What I shipped in October

October systems note. Real-time sanctions adjacency, Russian and Mandarin source-language reading, brief generator rebuild.

2025-09-12 by Mateo Reis
How much of the system is automated, honestly

We don't hide that automation does most of the heavy lifting. Here's the honest breakdown.

2025-09-05 by Wei Chen
When not to add a Residence Check

We don't always recommend the module.

2025-09-02 by Yelena Volkova
Watching private aircraft, briefly

Aircraft are public-by-default. Worth knowing what that means.

2025-08-29 by Kerem Albayrak
Our first month in numbers

What August looked like as we started up.

2025-08-26 by Mateo Reis
What I shipped in September

September systems note. Bootstrap of the triage pipeline, source ingestion, dashboard, encrypted-channel integration, and first morning-brief template.

2025-08-19 by Kerem Albayrak
How we decline members

We decline most applications. A short note on why and how.

2025-08-15 by Kerem Albayrak
Our position on marketing

Why most of what we do isn't marketing.

2025-08-12 by Kerem Albayrak
How we bill, plainly

Monthly or annual. Wire or card. No surprises.

2025-08-08 by Kerem Albayrak
The one thing we wish clients knew

What we'd actually want our clients to take away.