13 Free Websites That Find What's Hidden
Summary
This video introduces 13 free or freemium websites that empower users to investigate and uncover information, acting like 'spy tools'. It covers visual search (Google Lens, Yandex), location identification (GeoHints, SunCalc), historical web data retrieval (Wayback Machine), real-time infrastructure mapping (Overpass Turbo, Showdan, Censys), website code analysis (URLscan.io, PublicWWW), and ownership/sanctions tracking (Whoaxy, Open Corporates, Open Sanctions). The core message is that readily available online tools can significantly deepen investigative capabilities for professionals and curious individuals alike.
Key Insights
Yandex offers superior facial recognition compared to Google Lens.
Yandex, Russia's equivalent to Google, provides stronger facial matching capabilities than Google Lens, partly due to fewer built-in privacy restrictions. It can identify individuals from cropped photos more accurately by searching a wider range of the Russian and CIS internet.
Showdan searches the internet for connected devices, exposing unsecured systems.
Showdan is a search engine that indexes internet-connected devices such as webcams, industrial control systems, and routers. It highlights devices with weak or no security, often used by researchers to find vulnerabilities before attackers.
Open Corporates tracks company structures and ownership globally.
Open Corporates aggregates official company registration data from governments worldwide, including officer details, subsidiaries, and filing status. It helps differentiate legitimate businesses from shell companies by exposing hidden ownership structures.
Open Sanctions consolidates international sanctions and watchlists.
Open Sanctions combines data from global sanctions lists, government watchlists, and politically exposed person registries into a single searchable database, aiding in due diligence for businesses and journalists.
Sections
Visual and Facial Recognition Tools
Google Lens excels at identifying objects and translating text.
Google Lens is a powerful tool for identifying everyday objects like plants and translating text from different languages, handling billions of searches monthly. It's pre-installed on Android phones and has been available since 2017.
Yandex offers superior facial recognition compared to Google Lens.
Yandex, Russia's equivalent to Google, provides stronger facial matching capabilities than Google Lens, partly due to fewer built-in privacy restrictions. It can identify individuals from cropped photos more accurately by searching a wider range of the Russian and CIS internet.
Location and Time Identification
GeoHints uses visual cues to pinpoint a photo's country and region.
GeoHints is a catalog of country-specific visual details, such as the design of bollards or road lines, used by investigators to determine the geographical location of a photo. It was created by GeoGuessr streamers and is used by open-source investigators.
SunCalc determines the time a photo was taken using shadows and locations.
SunCalc calculates the exact position of the sun for any given location and date. By analyzing shadows in a photo, investigators can estimate the time of day and even narrow down the date or week if combined with other data like GeoHints.
Archival and Real-Time Data Tools
The Wayback Machine archives historical web content, recovering deleted pages.
The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has been saving snapshots of the web since 1996, holding billions of pages. It allows users to view deleted tweets, old website versions, source code, and other content that is no longer live online.
Overpass Turbo queries OpenStreetMap for specific real-world infrastructure.
Overpass Turbo is a tool for querying OpenStreetMap data, allowing users to find and visualize specific features like hospitals, cell towers, or police stations within a given area, rather than manually searching a map.
Showdan searches the internet for connected devices, exposing unsecured systems.
Showdan is a search engine that indexes internet-connected devices such as webcams, industrial control systems, and routers. It highlights devices with weak or no security, often used by researchers to find vulnerabilities before attackers.
Censys maps a company's digital footprint by analyzing internet-wide certificates.
Censys scans the internet for TLS/SSL certificates, allowing users to discover all subdomains associated with a company, including staging or internal panels, by tracing certificate history, even those not publicly announced.
Website Analysis and Fingerprinting
URLscan.io analyzes website behavior and connections in a sandbox environment.
URLscan.io scans a given URL, provides a screenshot, and details all external domains, scripts, and servers the page communicates with upon loading, revealing trackers, APIs, and hidden infrastructure.
PublicWWW searches the source code of millions of websites for specific patterns.
PublicWWW indexes the raw HTML, JavaScript, and CSS of hundreds of millions of web pages. It allows users to find sites sharing specific code snippets, analytics IDs, or widgets, thereby fingerprinting networks of related sites.
Ownership and Sanctions Verification
Whoaxy performs reverse DNS lookups to reveal domain registration history.
Whoaxy provides domain registration details and performs reverse lookups using names, emails, or phone numbers. It can uncover historical registration records, even those predating privacy redactions, showing a person's entire online portfolio.
Open Corporates tracks company structures and ownership globally.
Open Corporates aggregates official company registration data from governments worldwide, including officer details, subsidiaries, and filing status. It helps differentiate legitimate businesses from shell companies by exposing hidden ownership structures.
Open Sanctions consolidates international sanctions and watchlists.
Open Sanctions combines data from global sanctions lists, government watchlists, and politically exposed person registries into a single searchable database, aiding in due diligence for businesses and journalists.
Ask a Question
*Uses 1 Wisdom coin from your coin balance
