Where our results come from
Trust starts with knowing the source. Every result Sleuthly shows carries a badge and a link back to the public place we found it, so you never have to take our word for it. Here are the kinds of public sources we draw from, and the lines we don't cross.
- Public data only
- Every result names its source
- Opt out anytime
- No subscription traps
We don't ask you to trust a black box. Next to every photo, profile or mention in your report, you'll see where it came from and a link to check it. If we can't show you a source, we don't show you the result.
The kinds of public sources we draw from
We describe the kind of sources we use, not a count. We'd rather be honest than impressive: what you actually get is whatever we found for your specific search, each item shown with its source.
Publicly visible images on the open web
Photos openly published on public websites, blogs, news pages and public galleries, the places a face or a picture can appear without a login.
Public profiles and pages
Profiles and pages set to public by the people who created them, and pages anyone can open without signing in.
Public business and professional information
Company pages, public business registers, professional listings and the kind of role-and-company information people publish about their own work.
Public mentions across sites
Articles, listings and pages that publicly mention a name or an email address.
Public directories and open records (where the law allows)
Openly published directories and public records, used only where local law allows them to be searched, varying by country.
What we don't use
To keep this honest and lawful, we draw hard lines on where we won't go:
- No private or logged-in areas. We don't get past anyone's password, privacy setting or login.
- No unauthorised collection from social networks. We don't harvest closed social platforms against their rules.
- No secret database of faces. We don't build a database of faces by automatically collecting the web, we run your search and bring back sources.
- No special-category data on display. We filter out sensitive categories (such as health, religion, political views or sexual orientation) from results.
- No data we can't attribute. If there's no public source to link, it doesn't go in your report.
Are these results accurate?
Public sources can be out of date, or two different people can share a name. That's why we link the source for everything: so you can verify it yourself. We show photo results as a possible match, verify the source, a clue to check, never a verdict. We don't claim to be "the most accurate" and we never invent a result to fill a gap.
Drawing from public sources doesn't mean we keep them
Your uploaded photo isn't stored, your report doesn't enter our index, and we don't build a profile of you or anyone else. If you find yourself in a public result and want it gone, you can ask us to remove it from what we surface, free, without an account.
See what's public, with the source of every result.
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