Open Source Intelligence: Tools and Techniques for 2026 Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) sounds like espionage. For businesses, it's simply: finding public information faster than your competitors. The Legal Framework OSINT is legal when: Data is publicly available (no login required) No terms of service are violated Personal data is handled under DSGVO legitimate interest Rate limits and robots.txt are respected Essential OSINT Tools Tool Purpose Cost Shodan Internet-connected device search Free tier Maltego Relationship mapping €800/year TheHarvester Email and subdomain enumeration Free SpiderFoot Automated OSINT aggregation Free asearchz.online Privacy-first meta-search Free Custom scrapers Structured data extraction Dev cost Business Applications Competitive Intelligence Monitor competitor pricing, product launches, hiring patterns, and patent filings. Public data only — job boards, press releases, product pages.…