FROM OPEN DIGITAL DATA TO EVIDENCE: AN AUTHORIAL MODEL OF THE PROCEDURAL TRANSFORMATION OF OSINT RESULTS IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

The article substantiates an authorial model of the procedural transformation of OSINT results in criminal proceedings. The study proceeds from the proposition that evidentiary significance is not an inherent property of open digital information: openness characterises the access regime of a source, digital form describes the manner in which information exists and is reproduced, whereas analytical persuasiveness is the outcome of interpretation. The purpose of the study is to construct an integrated doctrinal framework explaining the transition from discovered digital material to factual data that have been properly formed, verified, assessed and used to substantiate a procedural decision. The methodology combines dialectical, system-structural, formal-legal, functional and hermeneutic methods with doctrinal modelling. Sixteen stages of transformation are grouped into five interrelated levels: information-search, technical-verification, analytical, criminal-procedural, and adversarial-judicial. The article explains the significance of preserving the primary digital material, establishing provenance, distinguishing authenticity, integrity and substantive reliability, documenting operations and ensuring reproducibility. It is demonstrated that multisensor and algorithmically generated results are derivative and may not replace primary information streams. The concept of a standardised evidentiary package is proposed as an organisational and methodological system of materials ensuring traceability and verifiability without constituting a new procedural source of evidence. Procedural formalisation is shown to be a mandatory but not self-sufficient phase of transformation. The evidentiary significance of an OSINT result is completed only after disclosure to the parties, a genuine opportunity for adversarial challenge, direct judicial examination and reasoned assessment. The article also formulates the principle of differentiated intensity of transformation, according to which the scope and depth of required operations depend on the type of source, the complexity of the material, the manner of acquisition, the processing technology and the nature of the procedural decision.