SKILL / Identity
Plans: Pro & AgencyPublic Profile Discovery
Find public profiles potentially associated with a person or username and distinguish supported associations from possible matches.
Read the step-by-step user guidePublic Profile Discovery is the Nexus Skill that answers a common opening question in an investigation: which public profiles appear to belong to this person or this username? Nexus looks for profiles that could be associated with the subject, then separates supported associations from possible matches that share only a name or handle. Every candidate is linked to the evidence that produced it, so the investigator can inspect the profile context before treating a match as meaningful.
What you get
Public-profile candidates for a person or username, each labeled as a supported association or a possible match.
Using Public Profile Discovery in an investigation
The result is a set of attributed profile candidates rather than a verdict. Each entry shows why Nexus considers the profile relevant — a matching display name, a reused handle, a biography detail or a public cross-link — and whether that support is enough to call it a supported association. Candidates that rest on a name alone stay marked as possible matches. Gaps are stated as gaps: if a platform returned nothing usable, the brief says so instead of implying the subject has no presence there.
In a case, Public Profile Discovery is a natural first Skill to run on a name or handle. Supported profiles can be added to the relationship graph as entities, possible matches can be carried forward for corroboration with Public Social-Profile Enrichment, and the whole candidate set can be saved to investigation notes or, on the Pro and Agency plans, exported in a PDF case report. Because the Skill is included in every plan, it is also the simplest way to see how Nexus keeps evidence and conclusions apart.
Example objectives
Run the Skill directly, or describe the objective in your own words — these are the kinds of questions it is built to answer.
Ask Nexus
“Which public profiles are attributed to the username @rivergate_ops, and which are only possible matches?”
Ask Nexus
“Find public social profiles that may belong to the person named in this case and show me the evidence behind each candidate.”
Ask Nexus
“Does this handle appear on other platforms, and is there anything that links those accounts to the same person?”
How Public Profile Discovery fits the investigation
A Skill is one move inside a case. The findings stay in the case file, where the evidence behind them can be checked, graphed and reported.
- 01
Choose or describe
Pick the Skill from the Skill Library, or describe the objective in your own words and let Nexus work out which Skills fit the question.
- 02
Review the evidence
Open the evidence record behind any finding and read the original public source before you rely on what it says.
- 03
Add to the case graph
Promote the people, organizations and identifiers you accept into the case relationship graph, straight from their evidence records.
- 04
Brief and report
Turn the case into a BLUF situation brief and, on Pro and Agency, into a structured PDF report with chain of custody.
Evidence before conclusions
What Public Profile Discovery cannot establish
Nexus keeps supported findings, possible matches, contradictions and information gaps apart instead of blending them into one narrative. These are the boundaries Public Profile Discovery states up front.
- Similar names and reused usernames are common; a matching profile requires corroboration before it is attributed to the subject.
- A profile match is not proof of identity, and Nexus labels unconfirmed candidates as possible matches rather than supported associations.
- Private, deleted or access-restricted accounts are not reachable, and an empty result does not establish that a person has no public presence.
Best for
Teams that reach for Public Profile Discovery most often.
Related OSINT concepts
The vocabulary this Skill works in, defined in the glossary.
Related Skills
Skills investigators commonly run next, in the same case.
Frequently asked questions
What does Public Profile Discovery return?
Public Profile Discovery returns a set of public-profile candidates for a person or username, each linked to the evidence that produced it. Nexus labels every candidate as a supported association or a possible match, explains what supports the label and records where no usable profile was found. The investigator reviews the candidates, adds supported profiles to the case graph and carries unresolved ones forward for corroboration.
Does a matching profile prove it belongs to my subject?
A matching profile found by Public Profile Discovery does not prove identity. Nexus marks candidates that share only a name or handle as possible matches, because names are shared and usernames are reused across platforms. Attribution needs corroborating detail such as a consistent biography, a public cross-link or a professional record. Nexus keeps that distinction visible so an investigator never has to rely on similarity alone.
Which Nexus plan includes Public Profile Discovery?
Public Profile Discovery is one of the three core Skills included on every Nexus plan, so it is available from the first day on Pro and Agency alike. Pro at €59 per month opens 43 of the 47 investigative Skills, adding the wider Identity and Public Presence set such as Extended Social Presence and Public Social-Profile Enrichment, and Agency at €89 per month includes all 47.
What should I run after Public Profile Discovery?
After Public Profile Discovery, run Public Social-Profile Enrichment on the candidates that need corroboration, so biographies, usernames and public links can be compared side by side. Extended Social Presence widens the search to community and niche platforms when the main candidates are thin. Public Username Discovery helps when the starting point is a name rather than a handle. Each result stays linked to the same case and graph.