Find Anyone's Social Footprint with This Open Source OSINT Tool
Ever wondered how much of your online presence is actually public? Or needed to verify the digital footprint of someone for a work project? Manually checking hundreds of social platforms and websites is tedious work. That's where Social Analyzer comes in – an open source intelligence (OSINT) tool that automates the process.
This isn't just another simple lookup tool. It's a comprehensive system with multiple interfaces that gives developers serious flexibility for digital profile analysis.
What It Does
Social Analyzer is essentially a profiling engine. You give it a username, email, or real name, and it systematically checks across roughly 1000 social media platforms and websites to find matching profiles. The tool analyzes the results, scoring each match based on likelihood and providing detailed insights about the discovered profiles.
The project offers three main ways to interact with it: a REST API for integration into other applications, a CLI for quick terminal-based queries, and a web interface for those who prefer clicking over typing.
Why It's Cool
Beyond the obvious time-saving aspect, Social Analyzer stands out for its developer-friendly approach. The scoring system is sophisticated – it doesn't just return binary results but gives you confidence levels about whether a profile actually belongs to your target. This is crucial when dealing with common usernames or names.
The tool is built with privacy in mind – it performs its analysis using publicly available information without requiring authentication to most platforms. For developers, having both API and CLI options means you can easily integrate this into your own security tools, background check systems, or digital forensics workflows.
The project is actively maintained with regular updates to handle new sites and improve detection accuracy. It's the kind of tool that makes you realize just how fragmented our online identities have become.
How to Try It
Getting started is straightforward if you're comfortable with Docker:
git clone https://github.com/qeeqbox/social-analyzer
cd social-analyzer
docker build -t social-analyzer .
docker run -p 9005:9005 -it social-analyzer
Then just open your browser to http://localhost:9005 and you'll have the web interface ready to go. The repository has extensive documentation on using the CLI and API if you prefer those interfaces.
For a quick test, try searching your own username or email – you might be surprised at what surfaces.
Final Thoughts
As developers, we often need to understand digital footprints – whether for user verification, security research, or building more personalized applications. Social Analyzer provides a solid foundation for these kinds of projects without the ethical concerns that come with some commercial people-search services.
The open source nature means you can audit the code, contribute improvements, or customize it for specific use cases. It's one of those tools that feels like it gives you superpowers for understanding the public web, and I'm excited to see what the community builds with it.
— @githubprojects