This page is how OctoProbe News reports. Redwing Technologies LLC publishes the desk, and these rules apply before a story goes live. Ownership and funding are on About & Masthead.
Independence and Conflicts of Interest
OctoProbe News is published by Redwing Technologies LLC, which also sells the OctoProbe investigation platform. These rules keep reporting separate from that business, and they are the conflict rules for the desk:
- The desk alone decides what we cover and publish. Sales, marketing, and platform staff have no role in editorial decisions.
- Platform customers, prospects, partners and data providers get no preview, approval or input on any story.
- We do not write about a customer, prospect or partner without disclosing the relationship in the story.
- Stories are not written to promote the platform. When our reporting uses OctoProbe tools, such as an investigation graph, the story says so.
- No one in the newsroom works on paid client matters involving the people or organizations they cover.
- The newsroom does not lobby, run public-relations campaigns, or represent anyone before a government body.
How OctoProbe Verifies Sources
OctoProbe News checks a factual claim against a primary record, an archived copy, or a named source, and it says when a claim is unproven. Anonymous sources are not a basis for a published fact.
- We verify reporting with Freedom of Information Act requests, state and local open-records requests, and the primary documents they produce.
- We work from primary records wherever they exist: filings, official documents, grant lists, archived pages and technical records.
- Every factual claim links to its source. When a page is blocked, altered or gone, we link an archived copy and say so.
- We label findings by strength: proven by a primary record, reported by a credible outlet, or unproven. We say plainly what we could not verify.
- For leaked or hacked material we describe where it came from, test what we can, and state what cannot be authenticated.
- We do not publish anonymous claims as fact. Rumors appear only when we are testing them, and we report the result.
Quotes and Attribution
Quotations stay tied to the record they come from.
- Quotations are verbatim and link to the place they appear. We do not tidy, merge or invent quotes.
- When we translate, we say so and keep the original-language text alongside where practical.
- Allegations are attributed to the people who made them. A claim repeated by us is still their claim.
- Analysis is labeled as analysis and kept separate from the factual record.
Fairness and Right of Reply
People and organizations facing significant allegations get a chance to respond. We report their public statements, and we contact them for comment where we can reach them. Responses received after publication are added and noted.
Images and Screenshots
Every screenshot is credited to its original source and linked. We crop and redact, and we say when we have. We do not otherwise alter images. Generated or illustrative art is labeled as such.
Privacy and Redaction
Publication stops short of private details that the story does not need.
- We blur or omit phone numbers, personal email addresses, home addresses and identity-document numbers.
- We do not name private individuals unless they hold a public role, have been charged, or naming them is essential to the story. We never name minors.
- People listed in leaked rosters or target databases are not named unless they are public figures, because publication can put them at risk.
Open-Source Methods
- We use information that is public or lawfully obtained.
- We do not log into accounts that are not ours, bypass security controls, use stolen credentials or pose as someone else to obtain information.
- We observe websites and systems passively, as any visitor would.
- Each investigation explains how it was reported, so readers can check our work.
Software Tools
We use software in our reporting, including the OctoProbe platform. Tools do not decide what we publish. How we use AI-assisted tools is set out under Use of AI.
Use of AI
OctoProbe News uses AI-assisted tools to help draft and edit articles, in line with these standards. A human editor reviews and verifies every article’s sourcing, facts, and conclusions before publication, and the desk is responsible for what is published.
Bylines
A story carries the reporter’s name when one reporter is responsible for it. The byline links to that reporter’s author page. Colin Aamot, Investigative Journalist & OSINT Domain Expert and Founder, Redwing Technologies, is the named journalist on the Masthead. Desk-produced explainers and methodology pieces carry the OctoProbe News byline instead of a personal byline. Every story, with or without a personal byline, is edited before publication.
Corrections and Updates
Errors of fact are fixed in the story and noted in public. The process is the Corrections Policy. Ownership is on About & Masthead. The desk is reached at Contact & Tips.
Our Status as a News Media Organization Under FOIA
OctoProbe News disseminates news according to the literal standard in 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(ii). It “gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public” through original investigations, open-source reporting, and FOIA and open-records requests on law enforcement, technology and policy issues, including national security, sanctions, fraud, and public records. It “uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work” by reporting, verifying, and editing under these standards and the corrections policy, and it “distributes that work to an audience” at octoprobe.ai/blog, in the RSS feed, and in the Google News sitemap. That reporting is “news”: “information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public.”
The publication record is Colin Aamot, Investigative Journalist & OSINT Domain Expert and Founder, Redwing Technologies, and the blog index. FOIA requests filed on behalf of OctoProbe News are for news dissemination, not commercial use. Reporting is editorially independent of the OctoProbe software products, as set out under Independence and Conflicts of Interest.
For agencies. FOIA officers can cite this page and contact the newsroom through Contact & Tips.