List snapshot
One complete downloaded version of a published list, stored with the date the source published it.
Updated 2026-07-26
Because lists are states rather than event streams, the only way to reason about them over time is to keep versions. A snapshot is one such version: the whole file as published, with its publication date and the time it was retrieved.
Additions and removals are derived by comparing consecutive complete snapshots. Incomplete downloads are never compared, because a half-downloaded list would look like a mass removal.
Every answer built on a list states which snapshot it used. Without that date, a statement about someone's status on a list has no meaning.
Related terms
4 entries- Delisting
- The removal of an entry from a sanctions list, visible only by comparing two published versions.
- Disclosure lag
- The gap between the date something happened and the date it became public.
- Observation date
- The date a value belongs to, as distinct from the date it was published or retrieved.
- Sanctions list
- An official register of persons and entities subject to restrictive measures, published by a government or an international body.
Where this appears in the data
Written for reading the records published here. This is not a legal, tax or accounting definition, and where a jurisdiction defines the term precisely, that definition governs.