FOR JOURNALISTS
Verify the news against the planet.
A viral video says it happened somewhere, right now. WorldEye gives you 40,000+ live public cameras, real-time flight positions and disaster layers on one globe — so you can check the claim against reality before you publish it.
Verify footage before you publish
A viral clip claims to show a street in Kyiv, a flood in Houston, a protest in Madrid. Before your outlet runs it, open the live camera nearest that spot on WorldEye and compare what's actually there: the street layout, the landmarks, the weather, the light. Geography, weather and time-of-day are brutally honest witnesses — mislabeled footage fails this check in seconds. It won't replace full forensic verification, but it catches the cheapest fakes fast.
Track flights of interest
During evacuations, breaking incidents, or stories involving aircraft movements, WorldEye's live flight layer shows ADS-B positions on the same globe as everything else. Cross-reference a claimed flight with its actual track — or set context for a story about an airport closure, a diverted route, or relief flights heading into a disaster zone.
Watch disasters as they unfold
Earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, floods: the quake layer and live cameras turn a developing story into something you can watch. See smoke on the horizon from a hillside camera, check traffic feeds for evacuation-route congestion, or confirm shaking reports against the earthquake feed before your first update goes out.
OSINT ethics: verify, don't dox
The power here comes with one hard rule: verify before publishing, and never use public cameras to identify or target private individuals. The cameras watch public infrastructure, not people. Don't zoom in on identifiable faces or license plates, don't publish anyone's location from a camera, and don't treat a camera feed as proof of who someone is — it's proof of what a place looks like right now, nothing more.
A 60-second verification routine
- 1Find the claimed location on the globe and open the nearest live cameras.
- 2Compare landmarks, weather, light and activity against the footage.
- 3Check the earthquake and flight layers for corroborating context.
- 4If it matches, note the camera source and timestamp for your editor. If it doesn't, you've got a story.
Journalist FAQs
Is it ethical to use public webcams in reporting?
These are cameras their operators already publish openly — traffic departments, municipalities, businesses — and WorldEye collects the streams as-is. Using them to confirm conditions in a public place during a news event is standard OSINT practice. The ethical line is publishing identifiable private individuals who aren't part of the story; blur faces and plates when the people aren't the news.
Can WorldEye identify people in camera footage?
No. WorldEye shows public camera streams as-is; it has no facial recognition and cannot identify individuals. If your story needs a person's identity, that is traditional reporting work — interviews, records, official sources — not something the map can do.
How do I verify a viral video with WorldEye?
Pull up the live camera nearest the claimed location and compare: landmarks, street layout, current weather and light conditions, and what's actually happening there now. A video claiming to show a live protest at noon in a city where the camera shows an empty street at that exact time fails the most basic check.
Is the flight tracking real-time?
Positions come from ADS-B signals and update within seconds to minutes. It's live enough to confirm a flight's general location and movement during breaking news, but don't treat the exact position as courtroom-grade precision.
Can I use WorldEye screenshots in my publication?
The underlying camera streams belong to their operators, not to WorldEye. Screenshots for internal verification are fine; for publication, check your outlet's policies and the camera operator's terms — and credit the source feed, not just the map.
Check the next tip live.
Open the globe — free, no signup — and verify a location in under a minute.
Explore more
Live flight tracker
Real-time ADS-B aircraft positions on the globe — the same feed journalists use to track flights of interest.
Earthquake tracker
Live seismic activity plotted worldwide — confirm shaking reports before the first update goes out.
All use cases
What researchers, travelers, storm watchers and educators do with WorldEye.
Cameras
40,000+ live public webcams worldwide — the verification layer, free for everyone.