By investigators, for newsrooms.

Web content disappears. Your evidence shouldn’t.

Capture, cryptographically sign, and preserve web content — creating tamper-evident archives that hold up under scrutiny. On your infrastructure, under your control.

Supported by

MIZ BabelsbergPrototype Fund

The problem

The web disappears — at an incredible speed.

Content is edited, deleted, taken down — often just when it matters most. DEPT lets you capture any web page, sign it cryptographically, and produce a tamper-evident archive that holds up under scrutiny. Built for investigative journalists and the teams behind them.

Deleted

Pages vanish. Tweets disappear. Server errors replace evidence.

Altered

Press releases rewritten. Product pages quietly updated. No trace left.

Unverifiable

Screenshots can be faked. Archive.org can be slow, incomplete, or blocked.

How it works

Capture. Verify. Share.

1

Capture

One-click capture inside your own browser session — including paywalled and authenticated content

2

Verify

Cryptographic signing via C2PA — the same standard used by major international newsrooms.

C2PA signature valid
Timestamp verified
Chain of custody intact
Content unmodified
3

Share

Private by default — nothing leaves your machine unless you choose to.

J
E
L
Verifiable by anyone

Features

Everything you need to preserve evidence.

Capture

One-click browser capture

Capture directly from your browser session — including paywalled and authenticated content.

Full WACZ archive

Page, assets, DOM snapshot, screenshot and other assets — everything preserved.

Tamper-evident from capture

Integrity is established with every transaction. Starting from the moment of capture.

Sign

C2PA cryptographic signing

The same open standard used by major international newsrooms and media organizations.

Server-witnessed timestamps

Timestamps tied to your domain, providing independent proof of when content was archived.

Verifiable chain of custody

From capture to publication — every step is auditable and transparent.

Control

Private by default

Nothing leaves your machine unless you choose to. Your archives, your infrastructure.

Team workspace

Share and manage archives within your newsroom, with role-based access control.

Interactive replay

Share a live, explorable version of the archived page — fully verifiable.

Zero-Trust & Compliance

Your data never touches our servers.

On-premises deployment means your evidence stays on your infrastructure. Always.

GDPR-compliant

Built in Germany, designed for European data protection standards from day one.

eIDAS-aligned

Cryptographic signatures aligned with European electronic identification standards.

On-premises

Deploy on your own infrastructure. No cloud dependency, no third-party data access.

Open standards

Built on WACZ and C2PA — open formats that prevent vendor lock-in.

How we work

From scoping to production

We work with your newsroom to integrate evidence preservation into existing workflows.

01

Scoping

Understand your team’s investigative workflow, technical environment, and compliance requirements. Define integration points and success criteria.

02

Integration

Deploy DEPT on your infrastructure, configure signing, and connect to existing editorial systems. Training for your team included.

03

Ongoing support

Continuous updates, security patches, and feature development. Dedicated support for your newsroom’s evolving needs.

Team

Built by investigators, for investigators

Basile Simon

Basile Simon

Basile is a researcher working at the intersection of engineering, law, and journalism. He leads the law program at the Starling Lab for Data Integrity at Stanford and USC, and is a resident with the ECCHR law firm in the cross-NGO investigative group Investigative Commons. He co-founded Airwars, a civilian harm watchdog, in 2014 and has designed archiving and verification workflows ever since.

Niko Para

Niko Para

Niko co-founded Syrian Archive in 2014 and has since worked in Berlin and New York with NGOs, media organisations, and businesses across the public and private sectors, including Security Force Monitor at Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute. He co-founded DOT • STUDIO in 2024 — a development agency for projects with social impact.

Tilman Miraß

Tilman Miraß

Tilman works at the intersection of technology, politics, and journalism. As a developer at Deutsche Welle, he built AI-powered tools for investigative journalism. He co-founded DOT • STUDIO in 2024.

Let's talk about your newsroom.

We help investigative teams preserve the evidence that matters. Tell us about your workflow.