Social media surveillance is one of the many pros of the digital age, providing a low-cost alternative to traditional surveillance to attorneys and their clients.

What’s the difference in cost?

Traditional surveillance can be expensive, with costs adding up quickly when minimum timeframes are imposed and especially if multiple investigators are required to properly tail a subject. But there’s a much cheaper option – powerful programs that dig through social media accounts for useful information.

Traditional surveillance: $1500 for a standard 8-hour day for surveillance with one investigator and with no guarantees the subject will even leave the house

Social media search: as little as $250.

Used by private investigators and law enforcement only, these programs can perform some serious magic when it comes to downloading profiles, authenticating and preserving potential evidence and using algorithms to search for specific keywords across profiles with thousands of pages that may be relevant to a case.

Used by private investigators and law enforcement only, these programs can perform some serious magic when it comes to downloading profiles, authenticating and preserving potential evidence and using algorithms to search for specific keywords across profiles with thousands of pages that may be relevant to a case.

For a cost that’s still significantly less than traditional surveillance, social media searches can pull entire profiles to create a social media timeline covering hundreds of sites.

Are you really going to find anything?

Consider the sheer number of people who have social networking accounts:

• Over two-thirds of Americans
• 74% of online adults
• Nearly 1.7 billion people with active accounts

Don’t think you’ll only find information on younger subjects –  65% of online adults 50-64 and 49% of online adults 65 and over have social networking accounts.The databases utilized not only locate more common accounts like Facebook and Twitter, but use potential usernames, e-mail addresses and phone numbers to find accounts on hundreds of other sites like Reddit, Etsy, Yelp, hi5, Instagram and Friendster.

The databases utilized not only locate more common accounts like Facebook and Twitter, but use potential usernames, e-mail addresses and phone numbers to find accounts on hundreds of other sites like Reddit, Etsy, Yelp, hi5, Instagram and Friendster.

What if an individual’s account is private?

In order to subpoena a social media profile, Zimmerman v.Weiss ruled you need to prove there is a reason to believe there is evidence on the profile and the subpoena request is not simply a “fishing expedition”. So how do you find evidence you need to get the subpoena granted? Or at the very least find information to have ammunition going into a deposition?

There are ways around a “private” profile. By using algorithms to pull together known associates of the individual, other profiles can then be searched for evidence related to the subject.

Even if an individual isn’t active on their social media accounts, the fact they have an account means they can still be tagged in posts, pictures and more.

What’s not to like

Another bonus to social media surveillance over surveillance – ease of anonymity. What happens if you’re made while following a subject? Forget about it – now they’re onto you. With social media searches there’s the power of remaining anonymous as you browse the internet and deep web searching for pieces of information to pull together to help support or tear apart a case.

While looking through social media profiles, it can be absolutely mind-boggling how much information people share not only about themselves but their friends and family. Social media surveillance gather all that information and data to create a cheaper alternative to traditional surveillance.

 

Interested in using social media surveillance on your case? Contact us for a rate sheet!