OSINT’s Legal, Ethical, and Evidentiary Frontier

Original broadcast 5/20/25

Presented by Flashpoint and Carahsoft

Andrew Borene, Executive Director at Flashpoint, brings a legal and policy-focused lens to the future of OSINT. He sees open source intelligence moving into new territory—not just as a tool for awareness or monitoring, but as a component of operations that require evidentiary standards, public accountability, and legal defensibility.

Borene begins by highlighting a key challenge: much of what is marketed as OSINT lacks transparency. Agencies are increasingly demanding “show your math” from vendors—expecting explanations not only for what a dataset says, but how the data was acquired, what filters were applied, and how conclusions were drawn. In law enforcement and policy settings, these standards are not optional. If OSINT is going to influence arrests, sanctions, or regulatory actions, its origins must be auditable and defensible.

He draws a parallel to commercial satellite imagery. Once considered highly sensitive, such imagery is now a routine part of national security and journalism. The same transformation is occurring with OSINT. What used to be fragmented and informal is now being professionalized and commercialized—and that brings both opportunity and responsibility.

Borene also stresses that OSINT providers must respect constitutional and privacy boundaries. The existence of publicly or commercially available data does not remove the obligation to treat that data carefully. Federal agencies must evaluate whether vendors are properly managing data about U.S. persons and complying with relevant laws. In this area, trust and compliance are just as important as capability.

He notes a promising shift: some platforms are giving agencies more control, allowing them to task collections, run their own analytics, and define their own thresholds for evidence. This trend toward “customer empowerment” helps reduce vendor lock-in and increases agility, especially in environments where timelines and mission priorities shift quickly.

Looking forward, Borene envisions an OSINT ecosystem where the line between intelligence and evidence continues to blur. As agencies use OSINT to support operations with legal consequences, standards will tighten. Providers who embrace this evolution—building traceable, transparent, and legally sound systems—will thrive.

Key Takeaways:

• OSINT must meet evidentiary standards in law enforcement, legal, and policy environments.

• Agencies must demand transparency in data sourcing, filtering, and interpretation.

• Empowering government users to define and manage their own OSINT workflows improves agility and accountability.

This program was part of the program Innovation in Government: OSINT Edition filmed on location at the OSINT Tech Expo on May 2, 2025.