Policy

Policy

Pale is an independent research project dedicated to Darknet markets and forums in Russia, the CIS, and around the world. Our goal is to organize information, maintain a chronicle of these platforms, and catalog event archives, while preserving the context of past events - such as arrests, exit scams, and so on.

The focus of our project is clear cataloging: project names, categories, region, visible status, historical notes, and reference links, if available.

If a resource has been added to Pale, it means it has passed verification, which includes

— The resource has a minimum number of reviews on popular platforms or directories;
— The resource has a minimum number of reviews regarding its performance on those same platforms;

Given the country-specific nature of each platform, store, or service, listing requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

To be added, you can contact us using any of the contact details listed in the directory; response time may vary up to 3 business days.

Methodology

The Pale team collects and organizes publicly available information about trading platforms, forums, and related resources-including names, operational status, and links - and also reports on relevant events. This data is not updated on a regular basis.

We strive to keep links and notes up to date, but given that Pale aims to cover the entire world, please note that we may not always be able to update a link to a resource in a timely manner. A site may become unavailable, change ownership, or move to a new address. We try to check the operational status of platforms, especially new markets, via /d/newmarkets

If you encounter such a situation, first try to find a current link on Dread | Pitch | Tenebris if you’re looking for an English-language platform, or on RuTOR | Pasaremos | OMNIA if you’re looking for a service in Russia and the CIS.

Restrictions on verification and listing on Pale

In accordance with basic standards - which are based more on tradition than on formal regulations, as is not surprising for this industry—the following are prohibited from being listed on Pale:
— Child pornography
— Sites related to terrorism
— Sites or services selling weapons or poisons
— Sites or services related to human trafficking or slavery
— Sites or services related to the provision of “force-based” services

Pale makes a good-faith effort to distinguish between active, inactive, archived, or suspicious resources, but no verification process is perfect. You can always verify a goods or services provider via PGP, which we strongly recommend doing.

In the event that a service hosted on Pale is confirmed to be engaged in fraud and evidence of this fact is received, its listing will be suspended.

Screenshots, descriptions, filters, and historical notes are provided solely for research and navigation purposes. They are not considered a guarantee that a service is 100% reliable or 100% safe.

Data and liability

Obviously, this text won’t help my lawyer defend me against the BKA | Europol | DEA, but we still want to mention that research notes, chronicles, statuses, tags, and brief descriptions reflect an editorial assessment based on information available at the time of publication.

Updates

This policy may be revised as the project expands to include new regions. I understand that you don’t care about this part, but if you use Pale, this automatically implies your agreement with the latest version of this policy.