OSINT ethics charter

1Core principles

• Legality: every search must have a valid legal basis in your country
• Legitimate purpose: scan only when the need is justified and proportionate
• Minimization: limit yourself to strictly necessary data
• Verification: OSINT results may be wrong, outdated, or homonyms — always cross-check sources

2Permitted use cases

• Checking your own digital footprint or your organization's with authorization
• Defensive cybersecurity, incident response, compromise analysis with mandate
• Public-interest journalism with editorial rigor and legal basis
• Professional due diligence (HR, compliance, fraud) within applicable law
• Academic research or supervised training

3Prohibited use cases

• Monitoring an ex-partner, neighbor, colleague, or anyone without legal basis
• Publishing or disclosing personal data to humiliate, intimidate, or harm (doxxing)
• Hiring or housing discrimination based on irrelevant OSINT data
• Automating harassment or spam via the Pro API
• Attempting to access non-public systems, accounts, or data

4Best practices

• Document the purpose and authorization of your investigation when applicable
• Do not publicly share results without necessity and without anonymization
• Report manifest errors via support rather than exploiting flaws
• Use the tier suited to your usage; do not bypass quotas for intensive unpaid use

5Abuse reporting

If you witness abusive use of the service, contact [email protected]. We may suspend accounts and cooperate with authorities in case of manifest offense.

Violations of this charter trigger sanctions under our Terms, up to immediate termination without refund.