OSINT and Social Science Research
Intelligence analysts have traditionally borrowed research techniques from social scientists. However, online OSINT techniques recently developed by law enforcement intelligence have yet to be fully adopted by social scientists. The sociologist's traditional conception of "unobtrusive measures" can be radically expanded by online OSINT approaches.
Unobtrusive measures (aka unobtrusive research) are methods of social science data collection in which the human subjects are not aware that their behavior is being observed. These are methods *other than* the more commonly deployed interviews, surveys, and experiments.
HUMINT is the acronym for “human intelligence”. HUMINT can be collected not only by interviews, but also by covert observation. When covert observation is involved, then HUMINT is one law enforcement and intelligence application of unobtrusive measures. OSINT is another application of unobtrusive measures.
Unobtrusive measures (aka unobtrusive research) are methods of social science data collection in which the human subjects are not aware that their behavior is being observed. These are methods *other than* the more commonly deployed interviews, surveys, and experiments.
HUMINT is the acronym for “human intelligence”. HUMINT can be collected not only by interviews, but also by covert observation. When covert observation is involved, then HUMINT is one law enforcement and intelligence application of unobtrusive measures. OSINT is another application of unobtrusive measures.
A practical example of OSINT by social scientists: How a team of social media experts is able to keep track of the UK jihadis
Ethical Concerns
Academic social scientists are constrained by the ethical mandate to respect human research subjects' privacy. Unobtrusive measures are only permitted when the subjects have no reasonable expectation of privacy, and when the research cannot be expected to create any negative consequences for the human subjects.
Online research can involve a number of ethical gray areas. Most social scientists would not consider posts to a public blog or Twitter account to be protected by privacy concerns. But what about a post to a subscribers-only forum? Is that a private communication? Does the reseacher have an obligation to identify himself as such when logging into a subscribers-only forum? Does it make a difference if the forum is exposed to the entire web, or only to the subscribers?
A number of ethical concerns have yet to be ironed out. Each researcher should seek approval from his IRB prior to collecting data online that involves individual, identifiable human subjects--regardless of whether or not the data is publicly exposed on the Internet. Some of the military and law enforcement OSINT techniques described in this book are likely to run afoul of your local IRB.
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