How Private Investigators Track People Online
The internet is deep and enriched with information from the billions who utilize it every second of the day. There is no doubt that the medium has proven useful in many ways including giving us access to goods and services from different parts of the world and providing us critical information.
Social media is a part of people’s daily activities, and everyone has a digital footprint. Let’s say a fraudulent employee or a cheating partner has gone missing and you are unable to track down their whereabouts.
This is where a private investigator in Greenville can help you. Private investigators can perform digital surveillance and uncover valuable information.
Digital Footprint: Tracking People on the Web
People’s online activities create a digital footprint. Private investigators use various methods of electronic surveillance in their research and investigations.
Social Media Accounts
About 80% of all American internet users use Facebook to join communities, interact with personal and professional groups, and share updates regarding their lives. This is exactly why social media is the first place for an experienced private investigator to look for when monitoring a person of interest.
A private investigator will perform a detailed online investigation on a person’s social media accounts where most of the information is already public. If a person is intelligent and sets their privacy settings high, a private detective can legally obtain information from profiles of online contacts like friends and family.
Investigators use specialized digital forensics software to extract and analyze data from social media platforms.
Search Engines
Online activity always leaves traces. Every time you sign up for a membership, fill up a survey or make an online payment, you leave a digital footprint. Private investigators are trained and equipped with the tools and techniques to put these pieces of information together and form a complete picture of the activity.
Although Google is the most used search engine out there, a private investigator will use a combination of other search engines as well. This means that they will also perform the same searches on engines like AOL, Yahoo, Amazon, Bing, and Duck Duck Go.
They might also search on metasearch engines like WebCrawler and Dogpile. Metasearch engines push data to other search engines so they’re a great way to perform wider and deeper searches.
Private Investigator Databases
Most if not all information on the internet is stored in databases. In addition to public databases, private databases are available to private investigators. They contain crucial public and non-public records that an investigator can use to locate and track someone.
Most of these databases require paid entry but they contain crucial information for individuals like their Identity number, social security number, landline number, address, DMV records, relationship records, and also their property ownership records.
Private investigators have access to all this information and they are trained with the legal knowledge that allows them to safely extract all the necessary information from these databases.
Digital Forensics
Digital forensics is a crucial aspect of private investigations. Phone forensics tools allow investigators to extract evidence from phones and tablets, including:
- Call logs and text messages
- App data
- Location information
- Deleted content
Computer forensics is used to analyze data from personal computers and laptops. Investigators can recover deleted files, examine browser history, and analyze email communication. They use specialized software to create forensic images of devices, ensuring the integrity of the evidence.
Privacy Laws and Digital Investigations
The Stored Communications Act (SCA) and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) limit access to certain types of electronic information without proper legal authority or consent.
Investigators should obtain clear, documented consent from the owner of a device or account before accessing or analyzing data on electronic devices. In some cases, consent from one party may be sufficient (e.g., a spouse allowing access to a shared computer), but this can vary by jurisdiction.
Employers generally have more latitude to monitor and access company-owned devices and accounts used by employees. However, there may still be privacy expectations for personal communications, even on work devices.
When dealing with cloud data or third-party services, investigators must be aware of the terms of service agreements and may need to obtain consent from both the account owner and the service provider.
Private Investigators Cannot Hack Online Accounts
While private investigators can uncover plenty of valuable information by looking at someone’s public social media profiles, they cannot hack into social media accounts, email accounts, or other online accounts.
Can Private Detectives Use GPS Trackers?
According to South Carolina State Law, it is illegal to place a GPS tracking device on a car without the vehicle owner’s consent.
Is Social Media Evidence Usable in Court?
The short answer is yes, social media evidence can be used in a court of law as evidence. There are some ethical considerations that need to be taken into account while gathering the information.
For example, any public information on these platforms can be used as evidence, but if unethical and unlawful measures like hacking were used to obtain information, then the evidence cannot be used in court.
Following are some extra measures that a professional private investigator can take to ensure the admissibility of evidence:
- Ensure evidence captured online is done in a way that if it’s saved or printed, it appears the same as it does online.
- Get an affidavit to verify the authenticity of the web-capturing technology used to capture the evidence
- Make sure they have all the supporting technology like the metadata including IP address and URLs to ensure the authenticity of the evidence.
Private investigators have licensed software that captures all the metadata that serves as supporting evidence.
How Can Upstate Private Investigators Help You?
Our team at Upstate Private Investigators uses online forensics and digital investigation to support clients in divorce and child custody cases, assist companies in uncovering fraud and theft, and perform detailed background checks.
Our trained and licensed private detectives will follow all applicable laws for both in-person and electronic surveillance. We have 25 years of experience in private investigation. Our team is available 24/7 to help you. Call us to discuss your case today.