Corp Watch

Tool Description : A non-profit investigative research platform that tracks corporate activity, accountability, environmental issues, human rights concerns, and corporate misconduct.

Corp Watch

Quick Overview

URL

https://www.corpwatch.org/

What it does

Publishes investigative research and analysis focused on corporations, business practices, and corporate accountability.

How to use it

Search for a company, industry, or topic and review investigations, reports, and supporting research.

Cost

Free.

Account required

No.

Minimal/none logged during our site session.

Ownership

CorpWatch, a non-profit investigative research organisation.

Use in Reporting

Useful for corporate profiling, due diligence, ESG assessments, and identifying historical allegations, controversies, or corporate risks.

What does Corp Watch do?

CorpWatch essentially keeps an eye on what companies are doing behind the headlines. It investigates corporate behaviour, tracks allegations of misconduct, and examines issues ranging from environmental damage to labour rights and corruption.

For analysts, it's a useful place to gather context on a company’s history, controversies, and public reputation.

The lowdown: Whilst it won't replace primary-source research, it can point you towards leads, documents, and issues worth investigating further.

How to Use:

1. Search for a company, industry sector, or topic relevant to your investigation.

2. Review investigative articles, reports, and archived research to identify key events, allegations, and patterns of behaviour.

3. Alternatively, view company profiles with separate tabs for violations, stories, activism, financials, and procurement:

4. Verify findings through primary sources, regulatory filings, court records, and independent reporting before including them in an assessment.

Cost

Free
Partially Free
Paid

Data Processing

Account Required:

Cookies:

The site may use standard cookies to support website functionality, visitor analytics, and content delivery. None were used during our site session on 24 June 2026.

Use in Reporting

CorpWatch can support:

Corporate due diligence investigations.
ESG and sustainability assessments.
Reputational risk analysis.
Supply chain investigations.
Human rights research.
Corporate ownership and governance research.

Corpwatch investigations have informed reporting on military contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, reconstruction spending, corporate environmental impacts, labour rights issues, and government procurement.

Several CorpWatch investigations have subsequently been referenced by journalists, advocacy organisations, oversight bodies, and policy researchers, with some findings later corroborated through official inquiries and inspector general investigations.

Capabilities

Limitations

Provides investigative reporting focused on corporate activity.

Not a primary source for most findings.

Covers environmental, governance, labour, and human rights issues.

Coverage is selective and not comprehensive across all companies.

Offers historical context on corporate controversies and allegations.

Focuses heavily on corporate accountability issues, which may introduce perspective-based bias.

Can generate leads for further OSINT collection and verification.

Does not provide real-time corporate intelligence or monitoring. Some investigations may be dated.

Includes company-focused research and investigative archives.

Summary

Corpwatch provides valuable context on companies, industries, and corporate controversies that may not be immediately visible through conventional business databases. It’s best used during the discovery, enrichment, and analysis stages of the OSINT workflow, helping analysts identify investigative leads, understand historical corporate behaviour, and add context to findings obtained from primary and official sources.

Ownership

CorpWatch is an independent, progressive activist and investigative journalism platform that operates as a sponsored project of the Social Good Fund, which serves as its fiscal sponsor to maintain its non-profit status.

Founded in 1996 and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is guided by its founder, Joshua Karliner, alongside an advisory board.

Ethical Considerations

Treat allegations and claims as investigative leads rather than established facts unless independently verified.
Consider potential editorial perspectives when evaluating findings.
Cross-reference information with primary sources wherever possible.
Distinguish between allegations, legal findings, and confirmed misconduct.
Ensure reporting remains balanced and evidence-based.
Avoid drawing conclusions from a single source.