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!
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”
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!
Guidelines
CheckFirst’s peer-review process: upholding OSINT Guidelines and ensuring accurate investigations
CheckFirst, a Finnish organisation providing fact-checkers, researchers and policy makers tools, methodologies and solutions to tackle fake-news, has recently published its peer-review process as part of its commitment to adhering to Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) guidelines.
Signatories
