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Ethics & Source Protection

conflict-ethicsosintethicsberkeley-protocolaccountability

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Full lesson · 8 learning steps Open any exercise for focused practice

Step 1 of 8 · intro card

Learn Ethics & Source Protection

Conflict Monitoring

Conflict OSINT follows the Berkeley Protocol for digital open-source investigations. Its purpose is journalism, accountability, and the legal and historical record; it protects civilians and sources, preserves evidence to evidentiary standards, and is explicitly not operational, real-time, or targeting intelligence.

Ethics is the foundation, not an afterthought. The Berkeley Protocol gives digital open-source investigators a shared methodology for collecting and analyzing public information to evidentiary standards, so findings can stand up for the legal and historical record.

The purpose is journalism and accountability. Investigators protect civilians and sources — blurring identities, minimizing exposure, and weighing harm before publishing — because careless work can endanger the very people it aims to defend.

Two rules anchor the discipline. First, it is not operational: no real-time targeting intelligence, no advantage for any side. Second, evidence is archived and preserved, because content vanishes and the record must outlast it for accountability to be possible.

Purpose is journalism, accountability, and the record.

The Berkeley Protocol sets the evidentiary methodology.

Protect civilians and sources; never operational targeting.

ethics:
  purpose: journalism-accountability
  standard: berkeley-protocol
  protect: civilians-and-sources
  not_operational: no-targeting-intel
  archive: preserve-evidence

Read the implementation

Connect each part of the code to the concept before you type.

1. Purpose

The purpose is journalism and accountability — building the public record, not advantage in a conflict.

purpose: journalism-accountability

2. The standard

The Berkeley Protocol sets the methodology for digital open-source investigations to evidentiary standards.

standard: berkeley-protocol

3. Protect people

Protecting civilians and sources from harm is a non-negotiable obligation of this work.

protect: civilians-and-sources

4. Not operational

The work is explicitly not operational, real-time, or targeting intelligence.

not_operational: no-targeting-intel

5. Preserve evidence

Archiving preserves evidence so it survives deletion and can support the legal and historical record.

archive: preserve-evidence

A complete learning loop

Understand

Read the concept map and follow the code breakdown.

Reconstruct

Type the implementation, repair mistakes and work through every recall exercise.

Verify

Use the final check without hints; revisit weak concepts in short practice sessions.