Most of us usually start an investigation with an idea of whothe focus of our work is and already have some basic backgrounddata before we really start to dig in. However, on a warm, sunnySeptember day I was walking the campus of CalTech in Pasadena,Calif., with my good friend and cohort MJ, and discovered a collegeID that had been presumably dropped by the owner. With campussecurity nowhere to be found and a tight schedule to get to LAX,spending more time to locate someone on campus was not a luxury Ihad. Besides, this was not a CalTech ID, but one from another localcollege and I could simply drop it into the mail to return it tothe owner.

Now, those of us who are adept at research and have been aroundfor a while know the benefits of the Internet and social media. Inmy classes I talk about the ease of tracking someone throughvarious outlets using online data, so I figured maybe I couldquickly get an email or telephone number for her and return the ID.But even I was unprepared for the amount of data on this studentthat I generated within an hour of searching on my phone!Yes, I never opened up my laptop to run a program, look up an IPaddress, or log onto a paid service – it was all done on my smartphone and through the Internet. 

Now maybe it's because I am a father of two girls and overlyprotective, or after 20+ years of seeing the good, the bad and theugly I am untrusting of people, or maybe I'm just cynical,but  even I was shocked with the amount of informationthis young girl put out there on herself. Mind you, this is a verybright and intelligent young woman, but like most her age she lacksa clear understanding of how the Internet can be used– and this is from someone who has been essentially raisedduring this technological age. Good for those of us fighting evilbut bad, very bad, when evil is searching for a target.

So let's talk about what I learned about this young woman byquickly searching on my phone. First, I knew that she attended alocal college and I had her picture. A quick Google search of hername and some minor search term manipulation using some operatorslike 'allintext' and 'allintitle' gave me a link to an articleabout her studies. Based upon the date of the article and the'Class of' year on the ID, I knew her approximate age, what shestudied, who her professor was, where I could likely locate her oncampus (and why and where she might be at CalTech), and more photosof her. A good starting point and what we might consider some basicresearch. I knew her aspirations, what future projects she wasworking on, and even found a technical paper she hadco-authored.

Was I done? Of course not. I had only spent 10 minutes and stillhad a bunch of rabbit holes to follow.  Now, whatintrigued me most on this research was a photo of her in a lab andwhere following something unique like that might send me. So off onanother Google search, but this time under the 'Images' tab(another highly underutilized search function).

What did I locate there? Well, would you believe that inaddition to the fact that she likes yoga I also learned about herother likes and dislikes…beer is a yes but it seems she prefersdogs over cats. She liked one airline more than others (or theywere cheaper); she is from a city in Northern California, where shewas editor of her high school year book; she lived locally; owned aPrius and a Honda (but admittedly one might be herroommate/boyfriend's); I knew where she went to yoga class; andmore importantly, what time.

Plus, she had just gotten back from a trip to Australia in July(and was in Sydney on July 5th). Yup, all that and I hadn't evenleft the Google Images results page yet! Seriously, with info likethat who needs to access dating websites!

Although I hadn't found an address and hadn't checked anymetadata on photos yet, I did know what she drove. And thanks toher photo, I also had the plate numbers on both cars. If I was aburglar, I had almost everything I needed to case her apartment –just a little more info and I'd be there. However, the scarierthought was that as a possible stalker I had everything I neededand just had to follow her home from campus.

Wow, this is crazy! You couldn't giveme more info…or could you? What if I told you that among the photosshe had posted she included a picture of her California driver'slicense! What?!!  California is one of the stricteststates regarding the disclosure of DMV data and PII (PersonallyIdentifiable Information) and this young woman is giving it away toeveryone! I didn't have a specific physical address, but I did haveher name, date of birth, driver's license number, schoolinformation, vehicle info, hometown and high school. Finding hermother's maiden name would only have been a few more clicks awayand then I'm making my own Visa cards!! Skip going to her home andbreaking in and risk getting caught – this guy just became anidentity thief! 

So, in less than an hour I had gathered, without really trying,enough information on this future rising scientist where if I hadbeen a thief, she might spend years, without success, trying torebuild her credit.  No owning a home or buying a new car,and eventually court subpoenas on loan defaults she had no ideaabout. And not because someone hacked her bank's records, stole herphone, or robbed her house, but because she gave out all of thisinformation voluntarily on the Internet. 

Now imagine what we can find on someone who is the focus of ourquestionable claim. The information is there and it's ready to becaptured, we just have to be willing to work at it. I never had tocreate a username or an account to access the information on thisyoung lady, and I never had to run a comprehensive report or accessprior claim information to build her profile. I did have to knowabout the social media platforms I was trying to access (formatslike Instagram are more mobile based, so you may not find thoseresults on a laptop), and there are tips and tricks of the tradethat will make better use of your time, but it really comes down toperseverance.  

The Internet, and more importantly the people who use it, aresupplying all of this data to us for free, it's just up to you andI to learn how to access it in an ethical and professional way. Inthis example I only accessed about 6 websites and stayedpredominantly on the search engine I was using for the majority ofthe information I was gathering. For most people that means noblocked websites from your corporate IT or other issues accessingthe preliminary data. I do suggest that you develop a protocol ofhow you will catalogue the data, both what you do and don'tdiscover, so you can consistently document your findings. Don'tdiscount the information that isn't there – that can be as valuableas what you do find and in some instances, more valuable that whatyou uncover.

Take what you want from this research example, but do not ignorethe importance of using the Internet or making it a mandatoryresource during your investigations. And while this article doesn'tlist a lot of search specifics, you don't need a roadmap to findthe information, you just need to spend some time surfing andthinking about what your goals are. Ask yourself 'what am I tryingto determine?' and then focus your Internet queries on that goal.If you aren't already doing this, then you are significantlylimiting yourself and your investigation. Oh, and if you use socialmedia, stay current with your privacy settings or you may just endup being someone's research example!

Joe Stephenson is the managing director of SIU at HagertyInsurance, specializing in classic and collector car and boatclaims investigations. He is an accident reconstructionistand certified insurance fraud investigator (CIFI), and a member ofseveral industry anti-fraud organizations. Stephenson lectures tovarious groups regarding the abundance of free informationavailable on the Internet and the benefits of using it as a mainsource of research.