ETHICS.md

# Ethics, Legality & Authorized Scope

OSINT is powerful. These skills are built for **lawful, authorized, defensive
work**: threat intelligence, fraud investigation, due diligence, journalism,
missing-persons research, penetration-test reconnaissance, and personal digital
self-defense.

Every workflow skill opens with an **authorized scope** gate. Honor it.

## The rules

1. **Passive by default.** Prefer observation over interaction. Never log in to,
   probe, exploit, or send traffic to a target's private systems without written
   authorization. Reading a public profile is OSINT; brute-forcing a login is a
   crime.
2. **Stay legal in your jurisdiction.** Computer-misuse, wiretap, stalking,
   harassment, and data-protection laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) all apply to
   research. When unsure, stop and get counsel.
3. **No harassment, doxxing, or stalking.** Do not use these skills to locate,
   intimidate, or expose private individuals for harm. Aggregating someone's
   personal data to threaten them is abuse, full stop.
4. **Minimize and protect data.** Collect only what the objective requires.
   Store case data encrypted, share on need-to-know, and delete when done.
5. **Corroborate before you conclude.** A single selector match is a lead, not a
   fact. Attribution requires multiple independent, corroborating sources.
6. **Respect terms of service and rate limits.** Automated scraping can be
   illegal or get you banned. Use official APIs where they exist.

## Not for

Stalking, harassment, doxxing, unauthorized access, or any activity prohibited
by law. If your objective is to harm a person, these skills are not for you.

By using this repository you accept full responsibility for how you apply it.
The authors provide it "as is" with no warranty (see [LICENSE](LICENSE)).
Initial release: 28 OSINT Agent Skills 10 user-invoked investigation workflows (person, company, domain, username, email, phone, GEOINT photo, social media, plus a router and report compiler) and 18 model-invoked reconnaissance knowledge skills. Includes ethics charter, installer, and elite README. 2026-08-02 19:21:17 +10:00			`# Ethics, Legality & Authorized Scope`

			`OSINT is powerful. These skills are built for **lawful, authorized, defensive`
			`work**: threat intelligence, fraud investigation, due diligence, journalism,`
			`missing-persons research, penetration-test reconnaissance, and personal digital`
			`self-defense.`

			`Every workflow skill opens with an authorized scope gate. Honor it.`

			`## The rules`

			`1. Passive by default. Prefer observation over interaction. Never log in to,`
			`probe, exploit, or send traffic to a target's private systems without written`
			`authorization. Reading a public profile is OSINT; brute-forcing a login is a`
			`crime.`
			`2. Stay legal in your jurisdiction. Computer-misuse, wiretap, stalking,`
			`harassment, and data-protection laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) all apply to`
			`research. When unsure, stop and get counsel.`
			`3. No harassment, doxxing, or stalking. Do not use these skills to locate,`
			`intimidate, or expose private individuals for harm. Aggregating someone's`
			`personal data to threaten them is abuse, full stop.`
			`4. Minimize and protect data. Collect only what the objective requires.`
			`Store case data encrypted, share on need-to-know, and delete when done.`
			`5. Corroborate before you conclude. A single selector match is a lead, not a`
			`fact. Attribution requires multiple independent, corroborating sources.`
			`6. Respect terms of service and rate limits. Automated scraping can be`
			`illegal or get you banned. Use official APIs where they exist.`

			`## Not for`

			`Stalking, harassment, doxxing, unauthorized access, or any activity prohibited`
			`by law. If your objective is to harm a person, these skills are not for you.`

			`By using this repository you accept full responsibility for how you apply it.`
			`The authors provide it "as is" with no warranty (see [LICENSE](LICENSE)).`