Open Source Intelligence

If someone decided to dig into your life – perhaps even try to ‘dox’ you – how might they go about doing that? What could they find about you right now on the internet? You might be surprised at how much information is readily available from public sources, including your local government agencies and state databases. Today I’ll be talking with Jason Edison from Intel Techniques whose day job is using open source intelligence, or OSINT, to find suspected criminals and whose night job is helping people remove that same information to protect their privacy and even personal security.

Interview Notes

• Intel Techniques: https://inteltechniques.com/ 
• Data Removal Guide: https://inteltechniques.com/workbook.html 
• Data Removal Workbook (PDF): https://inteltechniques.com/data/workbook.pdf 
• Credit Freeze Guide: https://inteltechniques.com/freeze.html 
• MySudo privacy app: https://mysudo.com/
• SimpleLogin (Proton) email aliases: https://simplelogin.io/
• Private credit cards: https://privacy.com/  

Further Info

• Send me your questions! https://fdsd.me/qna 
• Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://fdsd.me/book 
• Subscribe to the newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter 
• Become a patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons 
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• Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons 
• Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support 
• Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

• 0:00:41: Interview setup
• 0:02:34: What do you do for your day job in law enforcement?
• 0:05:17: What is open source intelligence, exactly?
• 0:08:41: What are your primary sources for OSINT?
• 0:12:01: What is doxing and how might it impact someone?
• 0:14:56: How does an OSINT specialist also value personal privacy?
• 0:22:36: How do others in law enforcement view data collection and privacy?
• 0:28:36: When emotional cases arise, do officials favor privacy rights over catching bad guys?
• 0:33:32: How do we balance privacy rights vs public safety?
• 0:39:19: How would you do a full workup on someone?
• 0:45:18: Where do people overshare or give away the most personal information?
• 0:52:31: How much of my personal information is available via public records?
• 0:56:43: Will tooks like AI help us find the needles in the haystacks?
• 1:00:56: What about data deletion services – are they worth it?
• 1:07:51: How useful are email and phone aliases for privacy?
• 1:11:17: How do you prove your identity to deletion sites without giving more info?
• 1:17:10: What tools can I find at Intel Techniques?
• 1:19:00: My data deletion journey