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OSINT

In the world of Digicity, inspired by Eclipse Phase, detectives are of a new breed. Just like they follow tracks in the physical world, Data detectives prowl the internet and follow the digital tracks of their prey. This practice was science fiction some years ago, but it has now become very real: enter OSINT: Open Source Intelligence.

OSINT can be simply described as using online material from publicly available sources to obtain information. Anything openly available online can be used: social media photos or videos, commercial registers, metadata, google reviews, real estate sales, Google Maps and many more…

It’s real detective work, where you have to cross-reference information to deduce new facts. Some software can help with those tasks, like overpass-turbo.

It’s an Open Street Maps plugin that permits you to do precise searches, such as finding all beach clubs within 500 m of the coastline on the Bukit peninsula.

Journals all around the world are creating dedicated OSINT teams for investigative journalism. Here is a florilegia of the techniques they use:

  • Satellite/Google Maps data matching: this technique is used to find the location of a video or image.
  • Shadows on a picture can be used to determine the time of capture.
  • Several live stream captures on Facebook can be synchronised using sound, like a clap is used in cinema to match video and sound; several videos featuring the same sound (police shots, artillery…) can be superposed in terms of sound, and their relative times can infer the time of the other videos.

There are many more techniques. Combined, they can be used to pinpoint and track an event’s location and time. For example, using the Strava app data, journalists tracked French President Macron’s bodyguards and it was possible to track the hostels in which he stayed!

While OSINT can be used for legitimate purposes like investigative journalism, cybersecurity research, and law enforcement, it can also be misused to invade privacy, stalk individuals, or spread misinformation. For example, harassers who want to track their target… 

In the face of the possibilities offered by OSINT, especially now that it is going to be boosted by AI, it is even more crucial to control your online data-trace. Otherwise, anyone a bit tech-savvy could track you!

In the world of Eclipse Phase, freedom-fighting citizens reacted to mass surveillance by creating Underveillance; they use OSINT to watch their leader’s misdeeds and fact-check the world.

And you, will you join the Underveillance? Discover the world of DigiCity in our video game, coming up in 2025!

 

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