Ethics & Acceptable Use
Last updated: July 2026
TrenchLink is a professional OSINT investigation platform. We built it to help legitimate investigators work more efficiently — not to enable harm. This page explains our ethical commitments and the standards we hold ourselves and our users to.
Our Commitments
We do not sell your data. TrenchLink's business model is subscriptions, not data monetization. Your investigation data, search history, and personal information are never sold to third parties.
We do not run advertising. TrenchLink contains no ads. We are not incentivized to maximize your engagement or attention — only to make your investigations more effective.
We are transparent about our data sources. Every source TrenchLink queries is documented on our Sources page. We do not use opaque or undisclosed data pipelines.
We design for investigators, not surveillance. Every feature in TrenchLink is designed for professional investigative workflows. We actively avoid building features that would make mass surveillance or bulk data harvesting easy.
Who TrenchLink Is For
TrenchLink is designed for:
- Fraud investigators and analysts
- Trust & Safety professionals
- Corporate security and risk teams
- Journalists and researchers conducting public interest investigations
- Legal professionals conducting due diligence
- Law enforcement (within applicable legal frameworks)
- Brand protection and anti-piracy professionals
- IT and cybersecurity professionals
Who TrenchLink Is NOT For
TrenchLink is not appropriate for:
- Investigating private individuals without a lawful professional basis
- Stalking, harassment, or monitoring of individuals
- Building profiles on people based on protected characteristics
- Any use that violates applicable privacy laws
- Consumer reporting purposes regulated by the FCRA
FCRA Notice
TrenchLink is not a consumer reporting agency. Information obtained through TrenchLink may not be used as a factor in determining eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing, or any other purpose covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). If you need a consumer report for these purposes, use a licensed consumer reporting agency.
Responsible Use Guidelines
Before investigating any individual, ask yourself:
- Do I have a legitimate professional reason for this investigation?
- Would the subject of this investigation reasonably expect that a professional in my role might conduct this type of research?
- Am I complying with all applicable laws in my jurisdiction?
- Am I treating the results as investigative leads to verify, not as definitive conclusions?
If you cannot answer yes to all of these, reconsider the investigation.
Reporting Misuse
If you believe TrenchLink is being misused, contact us at support@trenchlink.io. We take misuse reports seriously and will act on credible reports including account termination.
A Note on OSINT Ethics
Open-source intelligence is a legitimate and important discipline. Journalists use it to investigate corruption. Fraud analysts use it to protect consumers. Security professionals use it to defend organizations. The same techniques can be misused. We trust our users to apply professional judgment and legal compliance to their work. TrenchLink reserves the right to terminate accounts where we have reason to believe the platform is being used to harm individuals or violate applicable law.
Contact
Ethics concerns or misuse reports: support@trenchlink.io
General questions: admin@trenchlink.io