Intelligence based on publicly available information: in the press, on radio and television, on the internet, in commercial databases and in publications.
Definition after ODNI: open-source intelligence is publicly available information in print or electronic form – radio, television, newspapers, journals, the internet, commercial databases, as well as videos, graphics and drawings. According to ODNI, OSINT collection is spread across the whole Intelligence Community, and the main collectors were the Director of National Intelligence's Open Source Center and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center.1
The CIA's glossary lists OSINT among the disciplines that all-source intelligence (all-source intelligence) brings together, alongside HUMINT, IMINT, MASINT, SIGINT and GEOINT. The ODNI guide of 2009 describes the Open Source Center as a centre that collects, translates and processes open information; the Director of the CIA served as its executive agent.2,3
Sources
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence (USA), What is Intelligence?
- CIA, Spy Speak Glossary
- Office of the Director of National Intelligence (USA), National Intelligence: A Consumer’s Guide, April 2009
Checked: 4 November 2026