General Social Media Information Archives

4 Key Considerations For Social Media Intelligence

I recently had an insightful conversation with a Paralegal on using social media for deposition cases. He shared with me that the firm he works for conducts social media research on everyone. He shared that it was the only way they knew if their clients were being truthful with them. Too many times they learned of mistruths during the actual deposition. Can you imagine? Social media intelligence is becoming increasingly necessary for many cases.

That led me to think about what we do when we conduct social media/deep web research on a person of interest for a client. The who, what, where and why is becoming more and more important. Let’s beak it down even further.

The Who- What – Where – & Why –

Who: The who is the demographic information on your person of interest. This plays an important role in how we approach the search. Staying up to date on social media usage by demographics will help you narrow down your search a bit. Or, at the very least, give you a starting place.
What: What is the case about? Is it fraud, infidelity, workman’s comp, insurance fraud? This matters a lot. Depending on the case, there are less obvious sites to take a look at. For example, if an employee is stealing merchandise from their place of employment you may need to visit eBay or Craigs List.
Where: What area of the country does the person live? Someone living in a small town with limited resources may approach things differently that a person living in a huge city. The number of friends may be significantly larger in Facebook just because the city person may know more people.
Why: The why has to do with what you are specifically looking for. “We need to know if the suspect was active in sports after a certain date.” We are given this information by our clients many times. By knowing this information, we are able to use our time better by looking in social media specifically for this type of posting.

Stay Up To Date With Statistics As Part of Your Social Intelligence Process

Researchers are trained to keep up with changes in social media usage. It is part of an overall social media intelligence strategy. And that is not an easy task because people change their usage all the time. Ask any social media marketer. They are constantly looking at what is new in each platform on a weekly basis to be sure they are hitting the right audience with their marketing.

You see, it is not only about software. Software helps us to pinpoint areas of interest and certainly gives us additional, important clues. It helps to streamline the process. However, the human side is just as important if not more. Artificial intelligence and the understanding of algorithms are important but they have in no way replaced skilled researchers.

Social Media Regulation & Section 230

Will Social Media sites ever be regulated? Should there be a social media regulation policy? You can’t stop people from giving their opinions. That is called free speech. Social Media is the place where we all take part in free speech. What is up for debate is whether or not expressing your opinions on those sites falls under our First Amendment rights or not.

This week it comes front and center once again because of a Tweet from President Trump that Twitter added warnings to. Trump did not break any Twitter rules, however the social media site added its own opinion on the subject. It is no secret on how liberals feel about Trump’s Tweets. They despise them. I am certain that even some of Trump’s followers cringe at many of his Tweets. The problem here, in my opinion, is not the subject matter but the way in which Twitter did it. Should the owner of a social media platform be able to censor an opinion of anyone? And where does it stop?

What did Twitter Do?

Twitter said that the tweet about mail in voting fraud fell into a gray area of misleading content that the company deems as being important to call out. The platform rolled out its new fact-checking approach on May 11, around misinformation about COVID-19 which can be very dangerous. There is a lot of false statements made on all social media platforms and I think when it comes to public health this is very important. I am glad they have this safeguard in place.

However, did Twitter go too far this time? What does the law say? When this is talked about, Section 230 is always brought up. But is it out of date?

What is Section 230?

Section 230 was actually is part of federal legislation that was created 20 years ago. It has a total of 26 words. A recent Forbes article explains it this way:

They are the “26 words that created the Internet,” says Jeff Kossett, a cybersecurity law professor at the U.S Naval Academy and one of the foremost experts on Section 230.

Most fundamentally, Section 230 provides immunity to social media companies like Facebook and Twitter against being sued over the content on their site. This allows them to operate and flourish without needing to moderate content.

“Section 230 set the legal framework for the internet that we know today that relies heavily on user content rather than content that companies create. Without Section 230, companies would not be willing to take so many risks,” Kosset says.

Has social media gotten too big to regulate? Should it even be considered? What about censorship in the media? How does one ever really fact check these days when so many news outlets have their own agendas?

What do you think?

Secrets About Social Media Monitoring That Nobody Will Tell You.

By now most people have heard of social media monitoring in one form or another. Social media monitoring is something that companies do in order to maintain a good online presence and to monitor their online reputation. Restaurants, retail stores, doctors, lawyers and more are smart to hire a company to conduct this ongoing research on their behalf. It can reveal a lot about the company and its competitors.

In the investigation world, social media monitoring can take on an entirely new dimension. If you advertise that you conduct social media investigations, this added service could be a great new source of revenue for your company. A recent case study provides a good example of what we are talking about.

An investigator’s client (who is an attorney) was interested in locating an individual involved in a case she was working on. She wanted the individual’s social media watched for updates, as he was not able to be found using traditional surveillance methods. The investigator needed social media monitoring in order to watch for location clues in as close to real time as possible.

In the social media/ online world, things can change in a second. What is sometimes here today, will be gone tomorrow. That is where monitoring comes in. When an investigator uses social media monitoring, they are getting updates in real time. This type of online surveillance can be handy as it allows the investigator to get a clear picture and an update day to day on the whereabouts of his poi. This allows an investigator to act “in the moment” to better target resources to serve the person as needed, or to even find a missing person.

While conducting social media monitoring for this investigator we were able to locate the person. Within their instagram stories, we could see that he was on vacation and wanted to share his experiences. Looking at the background of an image can reveal a lot. We could see that he was visiting a very popular tourist destination. With this added information, it allowed the investigator to target more effectively. This may not be true in every case as some people don’t use social media at all. However, they are in the minority.

So next time you think about social media investigation ask yourself this question:

Would it be of value to my client to conduct social media monitoring for this case?
Some examples include:

Jury monitoring before, during and after a high profile case
Locating a missing person
Threat monitoring

The bottom line to all of this is to begin with the purpose & be certain it is well justified and that you are monitoring open source data only. When needed, this is an additional step in your investigation that may save time and money in the long run. People love to share their experiences online and this will never change. Learn ways to use it to your advantage.

The Dark Side of Facebook

Facebook is a place for online predators to stalk, engage and eventually lure an innocent kid to meet up in person. We have heard these stories too many times.
In this month’s newsletter, we want to cover some areas you may not be aware of, things that Facebook doesn’t really speak publicly about.

Facebook Groups Used To “Friend” Kids: When a person creates a Facebook Group, they have the choice of making it public or private. Facebook Groups can house all kinds of crime from fraud to drugs to sex trafficking. Kids who have a low self esteem or don’t have many friends are the ones who are the most targeted because of their vulnerability. They then get lured in by pimps offering them all kinds of fun and/or material things. Facebook has had numerous lawsuits filed against them over the years because of this. Newsweek published an article on one such case. A child of 12 years old was supposedly groomed online (in social media) for over a year. Facebook now has a very clear policy for this, with excellent resources in case anyone runs across a tip on a victim.

Photos Used For Extortion: A scammer can potentially sift through photos on Facebook, capture and download them and then conduct a reverse image scan to see if any married people are on any dating or swinger sites. They then can use it for blackmail.

Friend Requests: Romance scams are on the rise. Friend requests come in from a handsome man or pretty woman and many people will say yes to the request. Sometimes it may show that he or she is friends with some of the people they know, which makes it all seem more believable. Next comes the “online courting” stage and pretty soon they are asking for money. Catfishers set up elaborate fake profiles to make them appear to be real which hooks someone looking for love online.

Facebook Fraud: Targeting young women, a scammer once again took Facebook images of a victim and then created a post that said she was missing. Then 20 of her friends were duplicated and her “missing’ post was shared on all of their fake profile timelines. The scammers then blocked the real Facebook profiles so the victims couldn’t even see the fake profile of themselves.

How to Clean Up your Digital Footprint

We live in a world where we feel the need to share everything…pictures, job status, when and where we are going on vacation, where we ate dinner…and the list goes on and on. So much of our personal information is available to the public, and that’s not a good thing. Between Facebook and Google’s data collection policies and the rise in identity theft, now would be a great time to clean up your digital footprint. You’re probably saying to yourself, “I use strong and unique passwords. I mark sketchy emails as spam. I lookout for phishing emails. I’ve got Cybersecurity 101 down pat.” But with new threats popping up all the time, there are more in depth steps you can take to protect yourself. And the most important one of all: Clean up your digital footprint.

Most people have old email accounts floating around, forgotten flash drives in a drawer, and years of downloads taking up space on a computer. Believe it or not, holding on to accounts and files that you don’t want any more needlessly exposes you to all sorts of risks. Your devices can be lost or stolen (or hacked), and big companies can suffer data breaches that incidentally expose your information. So the less there is out there, the better off you are. “The physical presence of data is so small that sometimes we don’t think about it as being clutter,” says Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance. “But we accumulate massive amounts of it, and some of it can be harmful if it gets lost or stolen.”

Here are some tips from experts on how to clean up your online data and improve your privacy:

1. Delete or Deactivate your Online Accounts

Think about all the shopping, entertainment and social media websites that you’ve registered an account on. Big ones like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are easy to remember (or they instantly log you in with a saved password), but the chances are that you won’t be able to remember every single account you’ve ever created. To delete most accounts, go to your account settings and look for an option to deactivate, cancel or remove your account. Most of the time it won’t be easy to find because they don’t want you to leave. They may even offer you an incentive to remain a member.

2. Cancel those App Accounts

Now that you’ve deleted your online accounts, time to delete your app accounts. Look for apps on your phone and tablet, streaming devices, gaming consoles, and computer that you don’t use anymore and shut them down. Do you still have an account with a messaging app you used once two years ago? Why is that calorie-counting app from 2014 still on your phone? Cancel and delete. That type of exposure is an unnecessary risk. But just because you deleted if off your phone, doesn’t mean it’s gone forever. Make sure you clean out and close your account with the app developer so it retains the smallest amount of data possible about you. Closing an account doesn’t mean that a company deletes all your data or eliminates the basic things it knows about you, but it keeps the account from staying active and potentially continuing to collect data.

3. Email Accounts

The most important account to consider is your email, the central data hub of your online life. Your email account is a valuable prize for a hacker, because it contains information about tons of other people (friends, family members, coworkers) in addition to yourself. Deleting emails you no longer need and exporting old emails you still want to the cloud or a hard drive is a smart way to reduce what would be compromised if your email was ever hacked. Virtually all email services offer ways to export your messages and other account data so you hold it locally and can delete it from the company’s servers. And don’t forget to delete old email accounts that you no longer use.

4. Destroy Old Devices

First, let’s address the physical devices. Destroy old CDs, flash drives, and external hard drives you don’t need anymore. Also consider old PCs, gaming consoles, and smart home gadgets…just make sure you back up anything you want from those devices before wiping them. Next, sort through your computer desktop and clean out your documents folder. Eliminating old PDFs of credit card statements or medical forms that you no longer need will go a long way toward keeping you safer.

We’re not telling you to part with data that is personally meaningful or useful, the goal is to pare down what you have so if your data is ever compromised, hackers aren’t able to easily access names, birthdays, and Social Security numbers. “When we talk about security, we often talk about protecting our own things,” Kaiser says. “But in reality, in the digital world we actually do sit on large amounts of information about other people, and that’s something to consider with decluttering and storing data more securely.”

5. Survey the Scene

Take a step back and try to think of anything you might be forgetting. Most email systems have search features allowing you to comb through your old messages. You can bulk-delete everything from before a certain date or everything from a particular contact. You should also regularly search your email for the last four digits of your Social Security number and delete any messages it appears in. “Think of the information you have saved,” the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team notes. “Is there banking or credit card account information? Tax returns? Passwords? Medical or other personal data? Personal photos? Sensitive corporate information? Depending on what kind of information an attacker can find, he or she may be able to use it maliciously.”

Privacy Tips

Now that you’ve cleaned up your online data, here are a few tips to help maximize your privacy in the future:

Instead of WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, consider using an encrypted open-source messenger app such as Signal or Telegram.
Delete unnecessary accounts and think carefully about making new ones
Use encrypted email services like Protonmail and Disroot instead of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft email
Ideally, use Mozilla Firefox or Brave as your web browser instead of Chrome
Use privacy add-ons with your browser including HTTPS Everywhere, Self Destructing Cookies, Ghostery and Privacy Badger
Don’t use simple passwords and never use the same password for every website