The record: what the account keeps of each session
The record is the part of a session that outlives it. This page is about what a line in that list carries, so a reader knows what it can and cannot settle.
- lines
- 10
- with a device
- 10
- with a location
- 6
- says who ended it
- 0
A session record is a list of sign-ins, each with a time, a device label and sometimes an approximate location. It shows that a session existed and where it came from; it does not show who ended it, and it does not list what was done inside it. On the samples ten lines carried ten device names, six locations and three addresses, and none named the ending.
Ten lines, three kinds of detail
Sample G is one invented account's session history, taken line by line to show what each one actually carries.
| Field | Lines carrying it | What it settles |
|---|---|---|
| a time the session started | 10 of 10 | when the interval began |
| a device label | 10 of 10 | which machine, as the machine names itself |
| an approximate location | 6 of 10 | a country or a city, not an address |
| an address | 3 of 10 | one internet address, which can be shared |
| who or what ended it | 0 of 10 | nothing: the ending is not recorded |
| what happened inside it | 0 of 10 | nothing: that is the statement, not the record |
| 10 lines | 29 of 60 fields | the record is thinner than it looks |
What the record is for
It is good at one job and poor at another. It is good at spotting a sign-in you do not recognise: a device you have never used, or a location you have never been in, is the thing it is designed to surface, and it is why the sign-out-everywhere control sits beside it. It is poor at reconstructing a session afterwards, because it holds six possible fields and the samples carried three, none of which is the ending. For anything about what was placed, done or moved, the statement and the account's own history are the records that matter, and this one is not.
- Look at the record for unfamiliar devices or locations, which is what it is for.
- Do not expect it to say who ended a session; on the samples that field is never recorded.
- Use the statement, not the session record, for anything about a bet, a deposit or a withdrawal.
- Expect a shared address to look like many people; an address is not an identity.
- If a line is unfamiliar and unexplained, sign out everywhere first and change the password, then ask.