WayTrace
The internet never forgets.
OSINT tool for researchers and professionals. Reveal what a domain has exposed over time (emails, subdomains, tech, leaks) from the Wayback Machine archive.
Press Enter to choose subdomains, dates and density before launching.
Wayback Machine Legal Source Themes Contact Share your story Changelog
Your scan will start by itself when the countdown ends, with every choice on this page. Keep this tab open.
It was opened in a different browser from the one that asked for it. Continue only if you requested it yourself.
Page not found
This page does not exist or has moved.
Looking for a report? Reports are kept for a limited time and then deleted with everything they contained, so an old link stops working.
Appearance
Pick a theme, or build your own. Each theme carries a dark and a light face; the Light/Dark button in the navbar switches between them. Your choice is saved in this browser.
Signed in, your theme is saved to your account and follows you on any device.
Custom palette
Choose a background and an accent for each mode; surfaces, borders and highlights are derived automatically so the result always stays coherent.
Settings
These defaults come from a lot of testing, but the whole point is that you can tune everything: every scan and archive.org setting of this install, saved locally and applied when you click Save. Values in the orange zone are aggressive; the red zone carries a real risk that archive.org blocks your IP. Your machine, your rules. If you find a better balance, share your experience.
Set up your WayTrace instance
A few optional choices to make this instance yours. You can change all of it later in Settings.
Instance name
Shown in the navigation bar and the browser tab. Leave blank to keep plain WayTrace.
Appearance
Pick the default theme new visitors see. Each theme has a light and a dark face.
Archive.org identity
Every request WayTrace sends to archive.org carries a stable identifier for this instance, so your traffic is never confused with another installation's. This is honest attribution, not a disguise, and it never changes.
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Default categories
The intelligence categories WayTrace extracts by default. All are on to start; you can also narrow them for a single scan.
What changed
What changed in each version, newest first.
Legal notice and terms of use
Updated November 2026
WayTrace is an open-source intelligence (OSINT) research tool. It only reads pages already archived publicly by the Internet Archive and sends no request to the site being analysed. By using WayTrace, you accept these terms and the Internet Archive's terms of use. This page is not legal advice.
1. The service
WayTrace rebuilds the public history of a domain from the captures kept by archive.org and extracts information from them (technologies, addresses, links, identifiers) with the dates it was seen. WayTrace is an independent project, not affiliated with the Internet Archive.
2. Permitted use
WayTrace must be used lawfully, for example for:
- learning and teaching OSINT;
- security research on your own systems, or with permission;
- journalism and investigations you are entitled to carry out;
- historical or academic research on the web.
3. Prohibited use
You may not use WayTrace to:
- stalk, harass, threaten or expose a person;
- access a system without permission or bypass authentication;
- break privacy, data protection or computer security law;
- monitor or profile a person in breach of their rights;
- carry out any other unlawful activity.
In case of abuse, access may be blocked and the facts reported to the relevant authorities.
4. Your responsibility
You choose which domains you analyse and what you do with the results, under your sole responsibility. You must comply with the law that applies, including the law of the country your research concerns. If the results contain personal data, you are responsible for any further processing of it.
5. Personal data (GDPR)
Archived pages may contain personal data, such as names or email addresses. WayTrace only processes data already archived publicly, does not enrich it, and keeps scans for a limited time. This processing is based on legitimate interest (security research and web transparency). Anyone concerned can ask for a scan to be deleted (see Contact).
Hosting and processors. The service is hosted in France (OVH). Your email address is passed to Resend only to send sign-in links and notifications. No audience measurement or advertising tool is used.
Your rights. You can access your data, have it corrected or deleted, or object to it being kept, by writing to the address in the Contact section. You can also complain to your data protection authority (the CNIL in France).
6. Data kept
Depending on the case, data is kept on this server or only in your browser:
- Scan results: deleted at the end of the retention period shown on the report, together with the archived page content. The report link then stops working.
- Scan history: kept beyond that period (domain, date, outcome, account and IP address), without any result or page content.
- In your browser: your theme, your language and, while a scan is being prepared, the domain you typed. This data is never sent to the server.
- If you are signed in: a session cookie, with no tracker. When the account is created, the referring page (site or campaign) is recorded and kept for as long as the account exists.
- Testimonials: the text, role, language and date are kept and linked to your account. Nothing is published before review. An anonymous testimonial shows neither your name nor your email; a signed one shows the name, organisation and link you entered. This is based on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time (section 10): the text is then deleted. A rejected testimonial is deleted within 30 days, and deleting your account deletes its testimonials.
The scan history is used to prevent abuse, block bots, protect the relationship with the Internet Archive and handle deletion requests. It is based on legitimate interest and kept for as long as these purposes require.
The operator may refuse or withdraw access, and block an account, an address or a network, in case of abuse, automated scraping of the service, attempts to bypass its limits, or any use prohibited in section 3.
To avoid any data being kept, you can run WayTrace yourself: the code is open source and nothing leaves your machine (github.com/thomashousset/WayTrace).
7. Source data
All captures come from the Internet Archive. WayTrace does not host them and does not guarantee their availability, accuracy or completeness: results may be incomplete. Use of this data is also subject to the Internet Archive's terms of use. To have a page removed from the archive, contact the Internet Archive directly.
8. Licence
WayTrace is free software under the MIT licence. It can be installed on your own server, without the page limit of the online service. It is provided "as is", without warranty (see the LICENSE file).
9. Limitation of liability
WayTrace is provided as a research aid, "as is" and without warranty. To the extent permitted by law, the author and the operator accept no liability for damage arising from the use of the tool or its results, or for the content of archived pages.
10. Contact
The waytrace.org service is published by Thomas Housset, controller of the personal data described above.
Abuse reports and deletion requests: housset.thomas@pm.me. Legitimate requests are handled, and a scan can be deleted on request.