This work costs time before it costs money.
We do not do this for profit. Nobody here is paid for the investigation hours, and that is the constraint that decides how many cases we can take on.
Why it needs funding
Our small-business support work pays the bills: hosting clients, security work, web development. The investigations do not pay anything, and we would rather they stayed that way than compromise a finding to keep a client happy.
Every published case is the visible end of a much longer process — tracing infrastructure, capturing and hashing evidence, verifying that a claim still holds, writing it so a journalist can act on it, and waiting on a company to respond before publishing. That is days of work per case, and it only happens if somebody is paying for the hours.
investigation time
Our first target is roughly $1,400, which covers the cost of registering the project as a non-profit so that it can keep running independently and, eventually, take on work without being tied to one client's interests. After that, donations go directly into the hours we can spend investigating.
What a case costs
- Infrastructure tracing — registries, DNS, certification records, archives1–2 days
- Evidence capture, hashing, and preservation for every claim1 day
- Verification pass — re-checking every live claim before publication1 day
- Writing and production of the report1–2 days
- Outreach, right of reply, and correctionsongoing
Where the money goes
All of it, into time. We are not building an organisation with staff and offices — we are buying hours that would otherwise go to paid client work. If donations ever exceed what the work needs, that goes to the non-profit registration and the next case, in that order.
We are setting the donation process up properly before we ask anyone for money. If you would like to support the work in the meantime, get in touch and we will tell you the moment it is ready.
Other ways to help
Send us something to look at. If you have seen a product, an advert or a testimonial that does not add up, tell us. Public tips have started more than one of our cases.
Corrections and right of reply. If you are the subject of a report and think we have something wrong, tell us and we will look at it. We would rather be corrected than be wrong.