Tier 3 · Commissioned

WE INVESTIGATE
WHAT YOU NAME.

A commissioned forensic investigation of a single vendor: what they claim, and what their code actually does. Court-ready evidence, delivered by an analyst in 72 hours.

Before you sign. Before you renew. Before it becomes someone else's finding.

From $7,500 per engagement · quoted scope
What an engagement finds

Anonymized findings from actual engagements. The left column is the vendor's published claim. The right column is what the scanner observed at runtime.

Vendor claim
Observed at runtime

“No tracking before consent”

7 network calls initiated before consent banner rendered

“Data never leaves the EU”

PII transmitted to 3 US-based endpoints within 150ms

“No third-party sharing”

Browser sync with 14 undisclosed processors including ad networks

“Respects user opt-out”

Tracking continues post-rejection via fingerprinting fallback

Source: BLACKOUT forensic engagements · anonymized

Defeat device detection

They know when they're being watched.

A defeat device is code built to detect compliance auditors, legal discovery tools, and researchers — then behave differently for them than for real users.

// Actual regex from vendor code:
/headless|phantom|selenium|webdriver|puppeteer|playwright|monitor|checker|validator|analyzer/i

We documented 42 such patterns in a single vendor. If your audit tools didn't trigger these flags, you never saw what the vendor actually does.

The receipts

This isn't theoretical. The same methodology behind every published BLACKOUT investigation runs every commissioned engagement.

42
Defeat-device patterns documented in one vendor
16,500+
Sites implicated in a single finding
5,000+
Customer sites running one vendor's tracking code
Who commissions it

Procurement

You're 2 weeks from signing a $200K/year contract. The vendor's security questionnaire came back clean. Their SOC 2 looks fine. But something feels off.

Know what you're actually buying before the ink dries.

Legal

Counsel needs to know exactly what a data processor did with PII — documented in the browser, with chain of custody, in a form that survives scrutiny.

Evidence built to hold up.

M&A

The target looks clean on paper. But their website runs 47 third-party scripts you've never heard of. What's in their GTM layer transfers on close.

Know the risk before you acquire it.

Security

Your team flagged a vendor but can't explain why. The vendor claims they're 'GDPR compliant' and 'privacy-first.' You need technical proof, not marketing claims.

Answers your tools can't produce on their own.

The engagement

You're not buying a report. You're commissioning intelligence work — a named analyst, a defined scope, and a deliverable built for the decision in front of you.

01

You name the vendor

Vendor, your use case, what you're trying to learn. We confirm scope and send a quote within 4 hours.

02

We investigate

Full forensic pass: scripts, cookies, network behavior, consent handling, data flows, third-party connections, defeat-device detection, claims vs. observed.

03

You get the dossier

Complete evidence package within 72 hours of scope confirmation. HAR files, deobfuscated code, network captures, screenshots, chain-of-custody documentation.

04

We answer questions

30-minute readout call plus 14 days of follow-up support, included in every engagement.

Dedicated analyst

A named analyst on your case, with a direct channel for the length of the engagement.

Vendor risk analysis

What the vendor does, mapped across signal integrity, data exposure, compliance risk, and attack surface.

Data flow mapping

Where data actually goes. Every endpoint, every third party, every downstream processor.

Subprocessor audit

Disclosed vs. observed processors. Who they say receives data vs. who the wire shows.

Code deobfuscation

What's inside the blob URLs and minified scripts. We reverse it and document the behavior.

Defeat-device analysis

Does the vendor behave differently when observed? We test for audit evasion your tools can't see.

The dossier

Formatted for the desk it lands on — leadership, security, legal, or the negotiation.

Executive briefing (PDF)

2-3 page summary for leadership. Key findings, risk assessment, recommended actions.

Technical dossier (PDF)

Full findings with evidence. Code analysis, network behavior, consent audit, defeat-device documentation.

Machine-readable indicators (JSON)

Detection patterns your security team can import directly into their tooling and block lists.

HAR archives

Timestamped network captures. Full HTTP traffic for forensic replay and verification.

Screenshots

Timestamped visual evidence. Consent states, network panels, behavior documentation.

Security

  • Indicators for blocking (domains, endpoints, scripts)
  • Exposure map of the vendor's browser footprint
  • Network behavior patterns

RevOps

  • Signal degradation analysis
  • Attribution impact assessment
  • Data leakage quantification

Legal / GRC

  • Claims vs. observed report
  • Disclosure gap analysis
  • Evidence with timestamps + chain of custody

Procurement

  • Leverage points for negotiation
  • Risk summary for contract terms
  • DPA / subprocessor verification
Pricing
From $7,500
Per engagement · quoted scope

Scope confirmed within 4 hours of your request. Delivery within 72 hours of scope confirmation. Multiple vendors scope as one engagement, quoted accordingly. 24-hour rush available, priced in the quote.

Every engagement includes
  • Dedicated analyst on your case
  • Full forensic investigation
  • Court-ready evidence package
  • Executive briefing + technical dossier
  • 30-min readout call
  • 14 days follow-up support

A law firm runs this same work at $15,000–$30,000. The vendor contract you're evaluating costs more per month.

FAQ

Why quoted scope instead of a price list?

Because engagements vary. A vendor with one script and three endpoints is not a vendor with an authenticated platform, forty subprocessors, and a defeat device. You tell us the vendor and the question; we quote the scope within 4 hours. The floor is $7,500.

What if the vendor isn't in your database?

That's the point. We investigate any vendor — profiled before or not. You're commissioning original intelligence, not buying a cached report.

How do you investigate without access to my systems?

From the outside, the way the vendor's code actually meets the world: controlled browser sessions, public endpoints, observable behavior. No agents, no credentials, no access to your infrastructure.

What's the turnaround?

72 hours from scope confirmation. A 24-hour rush is available and priced in the quote.

Can counsel use this?

The evidence package is built to withstand scrutiny: chain of custody documented, timestamps verified, methodology reproducible. What it supports legally is your counsel's determination — we deliver the evidence, not the conclusion.

What about defeat devices?

We specifically test for audit evasion. If a vendor behaves differently when it detects observation, we document both behaviors. Most compliance tools can't see this. It's the signature of our methodology.

What if I need ongoing coverage instead?

Then RECON is the wrong tier. DOSSIER opens the full 601-vendor corpus at analyst depth. COVERAGE points the apparatus at your own properties continuously. RECON is for the vendor that needs an answer this week.

Know before you sign.

One engagement · One dossier · 72 hours

Need the whole corpus instead? That's DOSSIER. Need it pointed at your own stack, continuously? That's COVERAGE.

See the tiers