Verification Tools

Important:

These tools are aids for your investigation to help you analyse images, videos, and information. They can highlight a potential edit or extract hidden data, but they cannot interpret what that information means or determine the overall veracity of the content. Always apply your own critical judgment, consider the local context, and verify information against multiple trusted sources before drawing conclusions or sharing.

Please Note:

The tools listed here are external and not affiliated with iVerify Zambia. They were selected for this database because they met the inclusion criteria for this guide.
iVerify Zambia reserves the right to update these resources as changes may occur to the original sources.

Image Verification Tools

FotoForensics

Website: https://fotoforensics.com

This web-based tool provides deep analysis of image files to detect potential manipulation. Its key feature, Error Level Analysis (ELA), highlights areas with different compression levels, which can indicate where an image has been edited or altered.

Method or technology: Digital image forensics techniques; automated analysis.

Cost: Free (paid version available with advanced features).

ExifData

Website: https://exifdata.com

This web-based tool extracts hidden metadata from images, revealing valuable information such as the camera make and model, date and time the photo was taken, exposure settings, and even GPS coordinates if the camera saved them.

Method or technology: Metadata extraction; fully automated.

Cost : Free.

Forensically

Website: https://29a.ch/photo-forensics

This web-based collection of digital image forensics tools offers a comprehensive suite for in-depth analysis, including magnification for examining fine details, clone detection to identify duplicated areas within an image, error level analysis to spot compression inconsistencies, noise analysis to reveal unnatural patterns, and level sweep to adjust contrast and highlight alterations.

Method or technology: Digital image forensics and algorithmic analysis; semi-automated.

Cost : Free.

Get-Metadata

Website: https://www.get-metadata.com

This web-based tool extracts metadata from a wide range of file types including photos, videos, and documents. It reveals technical details such as file format, exact file size, dimensions, duration, and software modification history, helping users understand how a file was created, what software was used to edit it, and whether it has been altered since its original creation.

Method or technology: Metadata extraction; fully automated.

Cost: Free.

TinEye

Website: https://tineye.com

This specialized reverse image search engine uses image fingerprinting technology to find exactly where an image has appeared online, rather than relying on keywords or visually similar matches. Users can upload an image or provide a URL, and TinEye will return a list of web pages containing that exact image, with the powerful ability to sort results by date to locate the oldest known version and trace the image’s journey across the internet.

Method or technology: Computer vision and image fingerprinting; fully automated.

Cost: Free (commercial API and advanced services available).

Google Reverse Image Search

Website: https://images.google.com

This widely used reverse image search tool allows users to upload an image or paste its URL to find visually similar images and related web pages across the internet. It helps trace the origin and context of a photo by showing where else the image appears, what websites have published it, and whether different versions or crops of the same image exist online, making it invaluable for verifying content.

Method or technology: Computer vision and AI-powered image matching; fully automated.

Cost: Free.

Video Verification Tools

InVID & WeVerify

Website: https://www.invid-project.eu

This comprehensive browser-based toolkit is specifically designed for verifying social media videos. It allows users to extract key frames from videos, run reverse image searches on those frames to find original sources, analyse video metadata for inconsistencies, and check the video’s context across social media platforms

Method or technology: Semi-automated verification toolkit using computer vision and platform integrations.

Cost: Free.

YouTube Data Viewer

Website: https://youtube-dataviewer.amnesty.org

Created by Amnesty International, this tool extracts hidden metadata from YouTube videos that is not readily visible on the platform itself. Simply paste a YouTube URL, and the tool returns information such as the exact upload time and date, which can be crucial for establishing timelines. It also generates a set of thumbnails from the video for reverse image searching to determine if the footage has been used in other contexts or uploaded earlier elsewhere.

Method or technology: Metadata extraction and automation.

Cost: Free.

Location Verification Tools

Google Earth Pro

Website: https://earth.google.com

This powerful desktop application enables detailed geospatial investigation by providing access to high-resolution satellite imagery, 3D terrain views, and street-level imagery. You can verify locations by comparing landmarks shown in photos or videos with satellite views, use historical imagery to see how a location has changed over time, and measure distances and dimensions to verify proportions and confirm whether a scene matches real-world geography.

Method or technology: Geospatial mapping and satellite imagery; semi-automated.

Cost: Free.

Wolfram Alpha

Website: https://www.wolframalpha.com

This computational knowledge engine functions as a powerful tool for verifying geographic and factual data. You can query it to obtain precise information about distances between cities, sunrise and sunset times for specific dates and locations, elevation of mountains or landmarks, GPS coordinate validation, and countless other factual data points. It serves as a reference tool for confirming contextual details that appear in images or videos.

Method or technology: Computational intelligence and structured data querying.

Cost: Free (paid Pro version available).