Cattle Record Privacy: Decide What Buyers and Visitors Can See

Cattle record privacy has several layers: whether the animal’s profile is public, which records are public, who has management access, and what you include in a downloaded document. A public profile does not make every record public. Creatures explains the distinction in public, private, and reference animals.

Decide what a visitor needs to see before changing settings. A useful public profile can show supported identity and history without exposing personal contact details or every attached document. For the wider record system, see cattle record keeping and the cattle guide.

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Make the profile decision first

A public animal can be discovered and viewed by visitors. A private owned animal is hidden from the public, while people with an appropriate ownership, team, care, or transaction role may still have access to the information their role permits.

As an owner or co-owner, open More animal actions and use Make private or Make public. Review the confirmation. An active listing or stewardship offering must be closed before making the animal private; do not treat a privacy change as a harmless way to hide an active arrangement.

A reference animal represents a lineage relative you do not own and that has not been claimed by an owner. Manually added references normally start public unless your account default makes new animals private. References created by an import start public regardless of that default. Eligible unclaimed personal references can be private when ownership and ancestry checks allow it; a shared or claimed ancestor may not qualify. Use the offered privacy controls. Do not create a reference merely to avoid recording ownership.

Review records individually

Open Records and read the visibility of each relevant entry. Before saving a new record, check Make public. On a public animal, Registration, Pedigree, Certification, Vaccination, Breeding, Routine Care and Physical Measurement start public. Medical detail such as Test Result, Medication and Examination starts private. Identifiers also start public. Your account’s Default new records to private setting overrides the normal public defaults; inspect the actual checkbox each time. A private animal cannot have public records, but making the profile public later is still a reason to recheck what you intend to show.

A breeding record may contain planning notes you do not want to share. A registration certificate may contain a postal address. A treatment document may include someone else’s contact details. Files attached to a record follow its Make public setting, so a public registration record shows its scan too. Review the attachment itself, not just the title in the record list.

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• Animal profile: Should visitors find and view this animal?
• Individual record: Is this event suitable for public display?
• Identifier and attached file: Should both be visible to profile visitors?
• Team role: Does this person need management access?
• Downloaded packet: Is every included field appropriate for this recipient?
• External message or saved copy: Am I comfortable with the recipient retaining it?

The health-record guide explains record privacy at save time. Identification tools also have their own public choice; their attached photos and files follow that setting. A harmless-looking identifier card can therefore expose a less harmless attachment if you do not open it.

Share access for a purpose

Do not add a co-owner merely because someone needs to help with records. Team access and Co Owner have different powers. Co Owner can make broader profile changes, list the animal for sale, start an ownership transfer and invite their own Care helpers; Team can add photos and records. Animal member permissions describe the boundary.

A public profile link, a team invitation, and an ownership transfer solve different problems. For a buyer who needs selected history, first identify what information is required. Granting ongoing management access can be a much larger decision than sharing a document.

Treat a PDF as a separate disclosure

Download packet, when available in Records, lets you choose sections and detail. Every non-empty section starts ticked except private-only sections. Untick anything the recipient does not need. Including private records places those records in the PDF. Anyone holding that file can read them, regardless of the profile’s later privacy setting.

Review these disclosures when choosing the packet contents:

• Every packet includes available basic identity details, the main photo when available, the profile link and QR code, and the generator’s display name.
• Selected ownership history lists current owner and co-owner names and transfer parties.
• Full detail with private records can expose insurance policy numbers, premiums and contact details.

Open the actual PDF before sending it. Check the identity, dates, selected sections and attached-file index. The index lists file names only; original documents are never embedded. The names themselves may reveal information. Send required originals separately through an appropriate channel after reviewing them.

The workflow is explained in the animal records tab and illustrated in the record packet guide, which applies the same selection decisions to a horse handoff.

Check what the intended audience sees

After a change, inspect the public profile while signed out, and distinguish that view from what you see as an owner. Review the exact links and files you plan to share. Your management session can show private details a visitor cannot see, so it is a poor substitute for a public check.

AI-generated illustration.

An illustrative mistake is publishing a registration record whose text is appropriate but whose scan contains an address. Make the record private or remove the scan, then recheck the public result. Do not assume changing the profile removes copies already downloaded or forwarded elsewhere.

If something seems unexpectedly visible, work through the layers: profile, record, identifier, access role, and exported copy. If something seems missing for a helper, check the role before making the entire profile public. The right result is the smallest set of information that lets the recipient do the agreed job.

The cattle record keeping guide helps decide what belongs in the history; the cattle ear tag guide explains why identifiers need to stay attached to the right animal. Privacy review comes after establishing that identity, not in place of it.

Do this next on Creatures

Start with the information and responsibility you already have. Choose the action that fits your role today.

• Keep an animal’s history together: Add your animal with the identity details you know. You can start while signed out and complete the free account steps in the flow.
• Record a real event: Add a record, choose the correct animal and check visibility. The form opens for visitors; a free account is needed to save.
• Follow availability: Save an animal listing alert. Visitors can enter an email and complete signup; an alert does not guarantee a match.
• Represent your work: If you manage a farm or cattle organization, create its organization profile. Guest signup is available in that flow.
• Compare current listings: Browse cattle on the marketplace, then confirm the individual animal’s identity, history and suitability with the seller.
• Find organizations to contact: Explore the breeder directory and discuss records and ongoing support directly with the relevant organization.