Guidelines for public interest OSINT investigations

Welcome to ObSINT!

Who are we

ObSINT has been developed by a collective of like-minded organisations dedicated to conducting public-facing open-source investigative work. Our working group includes EU DisinfoLab, The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), OSINT Curious, CheckFirst, Centre for Information Resilience, OpenFacto, and Logically.

Convened by the European Fact-Checking Standards Network Project (EFCSN), a European Union (EU) funded project, our organisations have cooperated to establish non-binding guidelines for stakeholders conducting public-facing Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) work.

What is ObSINT

We envision ObSINT, or The European Open Source Intelligence Organisations Observatory, as a hub of resources for the OSINT community.

Guidelines for Public Interest OSINT Investigations

The Guidelines for Public Interest OSINT Investigations (“OSINT Guidelines”), divided into five chapters, aim to provide organisations conducting open-source investigations with a framework of good practices and an opportunity to reflect on and potentially refine their methodology, tools, skills, documentation and working environments.

These Guidelines are designed as a starting point. It is hoped that they will be strengthened and expanded with the support of the wider OSINT community, and that this website will be evolved with resources which provide practical templates and examples of the Guidelines in practice.

Join us today and help shape the future of public-facing open-source investigative work!

Join the organisations already implementing the Guidelines!

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Latest posts

Guidelines

Why have we published Guidelines for OSINT?

As mentioned by Colette Cuijpers: “the fact that data are openly available does not mean that they can be processed without regard to legal and ethical standards. Put in other words, the mere fact that data are publicly available does not imply an absence of restrictions to researching them”

News

Ensuring Safety in the Digital World: CIR unveils its Online Abuse Policy, Support Mechanisms, and Guidance

In a time when our professional and personal lives are closely intertwined with the digital world, online abuse has become a terrible reality.

Uncategorized

CIR Pioneer Approach to Protect Team Well-Being in the Midst of Traumatic Content Exposure

This Thursday, November 16, the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), one of the seven members of our working group at ObSINT, unveiled its visionary protocol for minimising the mental health impacts of traumatic exposure on its staff and partners.

Events

Discover the OSINT Guidelines – webinar replay

On 20 April 2023, well over a hundred interested participants joined us to hear about the OSINT Guidelines in a webinar.

Events

Discover the OSINT Guidelines – Webinar

Join ObSINT for an EU DisinfoLab webinar on the latest OSINT Guidelines. Gain expert insights and practical advice on how to apply the guidelines effectively in your research. Register now to take your OSINT skills to the next level!

Signatories