OCCRP Aleph
Aleph offers a way to research sanctions lists, corporate registries, leaks, and more
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Aleph offers a way to research sanctions lists, corporate registries, leaks, and more
Last updated
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Aleph is a platform by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to help journalists and investigators "follow the money". It provides access to many datasets on people and companies, and offers tools to organize and visualize data. Investigators can use Aleph to search sanctions lists, corporate registries, leaks, and more. They can also create workspaces to collaborate and upload their own data to cross-reference with Aleph's datasets.
Type the name of an individual, an organization, a company or a keyword in the search bar. The results will display the total number of mentions of your search term and the yellow highlights will show the context in which the search term appears.
To narrow down the search results, use the menu on the left to filter by date, country, language of the document, and .
To view a particular entry, click on the hyperlink you are interested in. This opens a pop-up in the same window. From here you can review the document online or download it.
In addition to basic keyword searches, Aleph offers advanced search capabilities, enabling users to find matches based on spelling variations, term proximity, and other sophisticated criteria.
The advanced search options can be helpful in cases when there are too many results and you need to narrow down your search further. You can use the fields in the advanced search, or you can use search operators.
At the top of the Aleph page there is a menu called Datasets which opens a search for each dataset in the OCCRP databank. You can use the search bar to find a specific dataset and browse its contents.
Use the Source Documents menu to review each uploaded file in this dataset. The documents are all available for download. Additionally, you can chose the Cross-reference menu to check for different spellings of names, or variations in the names. The cross-reference results are also available for download and can help clear out uncertainties in your research.
Aleph provides a range of tools and mechanisms to aid investigations. They are simple to use, but familiarizing yourself with the different tools and their functions may take some time.
No account is necessary to browse Aleph data. However, if you need an export of the results from a search, you need to create a free account. This requires the submission of evidence of relevant previous work (reports, articles, etc.), the name of the organization you are affiliated with and your role there. The same goes for creating research project spaces.
The OCCRP has restricted access to certain datasets. Access to protected materials can be granted to investigative journalists, activists, or researchers.
Leaked datasets by nature are not always complete, and are thus imperfect sources.
Some data types are not compatible with Aleph.
While leaked datasets can provide valuable insights and foster transparency, they often involve sensitive and personal information obtained without consent. Thus, making use of these datasets can harm individuals whose data has been exposed. It is therefore imperative to weigh the public interest against privacy violations and ensure data is handled responsibly, with respect for legal and ethical standards.
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The OCCRP Aleph website has a handy on how to search and filter data as well as written detailed instructions on .
OCCRP Aleph does provide a step-by-step tutorial on advanced searches .
If you have created an account for Aleph, you can also make use of their Investigation workspaces. Here is a on how to create and handle a workspace.
You can find the and which ones have an feature.
Some datasets are only accessible to approved users. To be approved, you must fill out .
Aleph's for developers, including an architecture overview, API usage, ingest pipelines, named entity and pattern extraction, development and operations guides.
OCCRP:
Humber College's StoryLab:
Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Investigativo: (video in Portuguese)
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