What an external assessment cannot tell you

Honesty about scope is part of the work. An external assessment of a person's exposure (the kind the desk does) reads what is presently available to a reasonably attentive outside observer. It does not, and cannot, read what is held inside organisations the desk does not have access to. The kinds of question it is able to answer are specific.

It cannot tell you what a particular institution holds about you in its private files. A bank's relationship file, a law firm's matter notes, a regulator's investigation papers (where there has been one), a private intelligence firm's dossier (where there is one): these are by their nature inaccessible to the desk and to anyone else who is not the holder.

It cannot tell you what a particular individual knows about you privately. A former colleague, a former adviser, a former associate may hold detailed knowledge that is not reflected in any document. The assessment can identify the relationships and consider their plausibility as channels of disclosure, but it cannot read the relationship itself.

It cannot tell you the future direction of any current matter. A regulatory inquiry, a litigation, a press interest in development: each has its own trajectory, and an external assessment can describe the present state but cannot predict its outcome with reliability.

It can tell you, with care, what an outside observer with reasonable attention and reasonable resources would presently be able to find. That is a useful answer to a particular question and it is the question the desk's assessment is designed to answer. Confusing it with other questions risks misuse of the work.