What is linkchart? The complete guide.

What is linkchart?

linkchart is a browser-based intelligence mapping application. Investigators use it to build a link chart — a visual network diagram where each person, vehicle, address, phone number, company, event or digital profile appears as a card on an infinite canvas, and lines between cards show how entities are connected. Unlike a static PowerPoint slide or a wall of Post-it notes, linkchart keeps both the picture and the underlying facts in one place: you can zoom from a helicopter view of an entire organised-crime network down to a single phone number and its notes without redrawing the diagram.

The product is aimed at professionals who work with network analysis during investigations. That includes criminal cases, fraud, missing persons, corporate misconduct, asset tracing and open-source intelligence (OSINT) projects where understanding relationships is as important as understanding individual data points. linkchart is hosted at linkchart.art; you sign in with your account, create one or more maps (canvases), and return to them whenever the case develops.

At its core, linkchart answers a simple question that complex cases keep asking: who is linked to whom, through what, and with what evidence? A detective might know that Person A owns Vehicle B and that Vehicle B was seen at Address C — but unless those facts sit in a shared structure, briefings rely on memory and scattered documents. linkchart makes the structure explicit. Relationship lines carry labels such as owns, seen at, uses, employed by or communicated with, so the chart reads like a living case file rather than a decorative diagram.

Link charts and intelligence maps in practice

In policing and intelligence work, a link chart (also called an association chart or entity-relationship map) is a standard way to present networks to supervisors, prosecutors and partner agencies. linkchart digitises that practice: cards hold structured fields (plate numbers, carriers, dates, usernames) while the canvas handles layout, grouping and print-ready export. When new information arrives — a new witness, a tower dump, a company registry extract — you add or update cards instead of rebuilding a slide deck from scratch.

Who is linkchart for?

linkchart is built for anyone who needs to visualise investigative networks with rigour and speed. The primary audience is law enforcement: patrol officers, detectives, crime analysts, intelligence officers and unit leads who coordinate multi-defendant cases. Private investigators, insurance fraud teams, compliance departments and law firms conducting due diligence also benefit from the same canvas, especially when cases involve many entities and changing hypotheses.

Crime analysts use linkchart to merge registry data, open sources and operational reporting into one map before a briefing. Detectives use it during active inquiries to track suspects, associates, safe houses and communication channels. Prosecutors and disclosure teams can use exported views to explain network evidence clearly, provided your organisation’s disclosure rules are followed. OSINT researchers map usernames, platforms and shared infrastructure without treating screenshots as the only record.

linkchart is not a case-management system (CMS), a records-management system or a surveillance platform. It does not replace your formal evidence store, chain-of-custody processes or lawful interception tools. It complements them by giving investigators a fast, visual layer for sense-making — the “map on the wall” that updates when the case updates. Teams that already use major case systems can still use linkchart as the network view that those systems rarely provide out of the box.

When linkchart is especially valuable

• Organised crime, drug supply chains or gang structures with many associates
• Fraud and money-laundering cases with companies, accounts and intermediaries
• Missing-person inquiries with sightings, vehicles and last-known contacts
• Cyber-enabled crime linking devices, accounts and infrastructure
• Any investigation where relationship density makes spreadsheets hard to read

How linkchart works

linkchart runs entirely in a modern web browser. After you register or sign in, you land on a dashboard listing your maps. Each map is an independent investigation canvas with its own nodes (cards) and links (relationship lines). You open a map, switch to edit mode, and add entities from a toolbar: person, vehicle, address, phone, event, company, note and several communication-oriented types (social and messaging profiles). Cards appear on the canvas; you drag them into a layout that matches how you think about the case.

To show a connection, you draw a line from one card to another. linkchart prompts you to label the relationship — for example owns, driver of, registered at or a custom phrase your unit prefers. Lines can be adjusted so dense networks remain readable. Clicking a card opens a side panel where you edit the display name, structured fields (plate, IMEI, carrier, organisation number, etc.) and free-text notes. Images can be attached to cards where a face, document or exhibit photo helps recognition.

Groups let you cluster related cards — for example a household, a crew or a corporate cluster — while keeping individual entities visible inside the group. The canvas supports zoom and pan across large networks; a minimap on desktop helps navigation. When you need a physical artefact for court, a meeting or a partner agency, you can print the map with grid and theme options so the network exports as a clear diagram on paper or PDF.

Maps save to your account on the server. Auto-save reduces the risk of losing layout work during long sessions. Undo and redo help when restructuring a chart after a major development in the case. You can work on the same map days or weeks apart; the chart you left is the chart you return to, which is essential for long-running investigations.

Entity types and relationships

Investigation quality depends on using the right entity type for each fact. linkchart provides colour-coded cards so analysts scan a map quickly: people, vehicles, addresses, phones, events, companies, items and digital identities each have distinct styling. Structured fields encourage consistent documentation — a vehicle card expects a plate and colour; a phone card expects a number and carrier — which makes handover between shifts less ambiguous than free-form notes alone.

Relationship labels turn lines into evidence carriers. Instead of an anonymous arrow between two dots, the line reads seen at or transferred funds to. That discipline matters when the chart is shown to someone who did not build it: a prosecutor, a partner force or your own supervisor should understand the claimed link without a long verbal explanation. You can maintain a consistent taxonomy per unit (for example always using associate of rather than mixing synonyms).

Communication-related cards support usernames, profile URLs and platform-specific fields where social or messaging accounts are part of the case. Event cards anchor time and place — a meeting, a robbery, a handover. Note cards capture hypotheses, intelligence gaps or supervisor directions without forcing them into a person card. Together, the types mirror how investigators already categorise material; linkchart simply makes the categories visible on the canvas.

Typical investigation workflow with linkchart

A common workflow starts with a seed entity — a victim, a primary suspect or a company — placed at the centre of a new map. As material arrives, analysts add entities and links in small increments rather than waiting for a “complete” picture. Early charts are messy; that is normal. The value is that every new fact has a proposed place in the network, and contradictions become visible (two addresses that cannot both be “home” for the same person at the same time, for example).

During team meetings, the map is shared on a screen. Hovering or selecting a card can highlight its connections so the room focuses on one part of the network at a time. After the meeting, one investigator cleans up layout, merges duplicate cards and adds fields required for the next operational step — surveillance, arrest planning or financial analysis. Because linkchart is visual, it is also useful for explaining a case to non-specialists: the chart is the storyboard; the side panel is the footnote.

Before major operational milestones, many teams freeze a print snapshot or PDF so there is a point-in-time record of what the unit believed the network looked like. That snapshot does not replace formal exhibits, but it documents analytical state. As the case progresses toward charge or civil action, the living map continues to evolve while archived exports preserve earlier states if your procedures require them.

Collaboration and sharing maps

Investigations are rarely solo efforts. linkchart supports inviting collaborators to a specific map. You can grant editor access to colleagues who should add cards and lines, or viewer access to supervisors and partner agencies who need visibility without changing the chart. Access is tied to accounts on linkchart.art; invitations are accepted through the product rather than by emailing unsecured diagram files.

Real-time collaboration features help distributed teams: when one editor saves changes, others can sync to the latest version of the canvas depending on configuration. For sensitive cases, your organisation should define who may be invited, which roles they receive and when viewer access is revoked. linkchart provides the mechanism; your governance policy provides the rules.

Sharing should always align with lawful basis, need-to-know principles and any memorandum of understanding between agencies. A viewer role is useful for partner briefings where the map is explanatory but editing must stay with the owning force. Editors might include analysts on the same inquiry team; viewers might include lead investigators in a parallel operation who must not alter your chart.

Security, privacy and data protection

Investigative maps often contain personal data, sensitive operational details and material subject to strict handling rules. linkchart is designed as a secure web application: communication with the service uses HTTPS (TLS) so data in transit is encrypted between your browser and the server. Authentication is session-based: you sign in with your credentials, and the server issues a session token used for subsequent API requests. Passwords are handled server-side according to modern practice (not stored in plain text). You should use strong, unique passwords and, where your policy requires it, full-disk encryption on devices used to access the service.

Access control applies at map level. Your maps belong to your account unless you explicitly share them via the invitation system. Collaborators only see maps they own or have been invited to. Viewer roles cannot edit the network; editors can change cards and links according to permissions. This model supports need-to-know sharing better than sending static images in unsecured channels.

Organisations remain responsible for lawful processing under GDPR and local equivalents: identifying a legal basis, minimising data, retaining maps only as long as policy allows and respecting subject-access or deletion requirements where they apply. linkchart is a tool; your force, firm or company defines retention, classification and whether a given map may be created at all. We recommend documenting why a map was created, who has access and when it should be deleted or archived in your formal systems.

Operational security also matters: lock workstations, avoid discussing sensitive maps in open offices, and be cautious with printouts. Mobile access is supported for convenience, but treat phones and tablets with the same care as other investigative systems. If your unit requires on-premise or air-gapped deployment, evaluate whether a cloud-hosted SaaS product meets your authority’s requirements before adopting it.

Backups and availability are handled as part of hosting linkchart.art; maps are stored in a database associated with your user account. You should still consider export and archive procedures inside your organisation so critical analytical work is not solely dependent on a single vendor. Periodic print or structured export, where policy permits, is a sensible supplement.

Use cases by sector

Policing and law enforcement. Map suspects, victims, witnesses, vehicles, phones and locations in drug, violence, sexual offence or property crime inquiries. Use groups for co-defendants. Label lines with evidentiary strength where your policy allows (confirmed vs intelligence vs pending).

Fraud and financial crime. Connect companies, directors, bank accounts (as notes or custom fields), intermediaries and communication channels. Visualise layering and handoffs that spreadsheets hide. Support restraint or asset-recovery discussions with a clear network view.

Private investigation and insurance. Document surveillance findings, claimant networks and inconsistent statements. Maintain a single chart per claim or operation with dated notes on cards.

Corporate security and compliance. Map insider-threat hypotheses, supplier relationships and conflict-of-interest networks during internal investigations, subject to HR and legal oversight.

Academic and training contexts. Teach link analysis and criminal intelligence methodology using anonymised scenarios on the canvas (ensure no real personal data is used against policy).

How linkchart compares to other approaches

Whiteboards and paper are fast for brainstorming but do not scale, are hard to share remotely and lose structure when the case runs for months. Presentation software produces pretty diagrams but each update is manual; there is no shared data model behind the shapes. Spreadsheets store facts well but poorly show network topology. Enterprise investigation platforms may include link analysis modules but are costly and heavy for teams that only need mapping.

linkchart occupies a focused niche: a dedicated, web-native link chart canvas with investigation-oriented card types, labelled relationships, printing, collaboration and a low barrier to entry (free registration, browser access). It is ideal when you want analytical clarity without deploying a full case-management suite. Teams with complex evidence workflows should still use linkchart alongside — not instead of — formal records systems.

Getting started with linkchart

Visit linkchart.art, try the interactive demo on the homepage to see card design and relationship highlighting, then create a free account. From the dashboard, create your first map, name it after the operation or case reference your unit uses internally, and add three to five seed entities. Draw lines between them and open the side panel to add fields. Share the map with a colleague using invitations when you are ready for collaborative editing.

Read the About us page for mission and background. For product questions, use the FAQ below or contact your organisation’s linkchart administrator if your force deploys the service centrally.