We all do it, though we may not fess up to it. You start out with a simple Google search, and two hours later you're browsing through your new crush's 2007 Spring Break album on Facebook, or checking out your office colleague's endless string of loony comments in some political forum.
Seriously, we're really just a bunch of junior Dick Tracy wannabes at heart.
But there's more to online stalking than Googling someone's email address or finding their semi-public Facebook page. In fact, by using a few very simple techniques, you can discover tons of publicly available information about people--without paying a dime or breaking the law. We asked some crackerjack digital sleuths to show us how to gather information, from criminal records to online profiles to ancient newsgroup flame-wars.
Now, we're not recommending you start digging for dirt on everyone you know, but there is one person you should definitely wield these tactics on: Yourself. Even if you're n ot the type to spend hours looking for incriminating details, you can bet that there's at least one person in your life--your boss, maybe, or your new neighbor--who is. Don't you want to know what they might find? We certainly do.
Make the right connections
The good news is that online stalking doesn't require any high-tech knowledge. In fact, if you can type words into a search box, you're pretty much set. But what separates the most effective stalkers from average snoopers isn't the techniques they use--it's the connections they make between different pieces of data. "An ‘advanced' stalker knows how to visualize a data map," says Brandan Geise, a security consultant for SecureState. "They can take small details and match them to other details to create a picture of a person's life."
Connections can be made everywhere, Geise explains. "If you have their non-corporate email address, you've probably got a username t hat they've used at least once before. Google that," he says. Geise also suggests checking Amazon's Wish List feature, because many people have publicly available lists that you can search by name or email address. You find their interests and hobbies, favorite sports teams, what books and music they like, and their general shopping preferences.
Twitter is another good place to look for seemingly innocuous details. The Twitter app Tweetails lets you look up any user's Tweet statistics. The app compiles stats from a user's most recent 1000 Tweets to spit out info such as their most-used hashtags, words, and user mentions. Hashtags and frequent words tell you what they're thinking about, while user mentions will reveal their closest Twitter friends. (Note: It doesn't work with protected accounts.)
Use Google like a boss
Once you've gathered some key details about your target, such as their favorite sports team or their hometown, y ou can use these details to fuel a more specific Google search. You probably already know that you can search for a specific phrase by putting it in quotation marks, but to really up your game, use Google's secret weapon: Search operators. These help you weed out irrelevant links. Some tactics:
1) Search within a website with the "site:" operator. For example, to search for my articles on Men's Health, type "site:menshealth.com Sarah Jacobsson Purewal." Use this operator if you've found a company or school website and you want to see if your target is mentioned in the archives.
2) Search for pages that link back to a website with the "link:" operator. For example, if you want to find out what pages link back to Men's Health, type "link:menshealth.com." Use this operator if you've found your target's personal webpage. Link-backs to their site will probably be from them promoting their website on online forums, in comment s on other websites, and on social networks.
3) Weed out irrelevant results by putting a hyphen (-) in front of a word or website. For example, if you want to search for me, but you don't want to see my Men's Health articles, type "Sarah Jacobsson Purewal -menshealth.com." Use this operator if your target has a common name, is a public figure, or shares a name with a public figure to help get rid of unwanted results.
4) Find specific file types with the "filename:suffix" operator. Suffix is the type of file you're looking for. For example, if you want to find PDF files that I'm mentioned in, type "filename:pdf Sarah Jacobsson Purewal." Use this operator to find court documents and petitions, which are often saved as PDF files.
Find their weakest link
Some people lock down their Facebook profiles or make their Twitter feeds private. This makes them slightly more difficult to stalk--but only slightly. "If your target knows their way around social networking privacy settings, stop targeting them," says Mark Wuergler, senior security researcher at Immunity, Inc. "Start targeting the people around them: friends and family members."
Family members are the easiest people to target, because a quick name search on Advanced Background Checks (advancedbackgroundchecks.com) reveals a list of possible relatives. If your main target has a sibling, they've probably written on his or her Facebook Timeline at least once or twice, and you may even find a couple of untagged photos floating around. Wuergler demonstrated how effective this "target-hopping" technique was by targeting my younger brother, which enabled him to find my private Facebook account (which is under a different name) from public photo comments.
Do a reverse image search
Most social networking sites do not allow you to make your profile picture private. So if you find a social media account with your target's photo, grab that image. This is likely a photo they uploaded, which means they've probably uploaded the same image to other places, such as dating sites, forums, and other social networks. Head to TinEye (tineye.com) and upload the photo or provide the photo's URL to do a "reverse image search," or a search for all instances of that photo online. TinEye and other reverse image searches, such as Google's Search by Image, will find the photo if it's been uploaded anywhere else, even if it's been cropped or resized.
Other photos to look closely at are shots with friends (potential targets) and photos of places (landmarks are obvious, but also look for unique-looking building styles). "Most people don't realize how much their photos say," Wuergler says. "For example, if I know what city you live in and I see a photo of you at the pool, and there's a unique canopy in the background, I can use Google Maps' satellite view to search for that canopy."
Bonus tip: View uncropped Facebook images
While Facebook doesn't let you make your profile picture private, it does let you prevent strangers from seeing the image in all its full-sized glory. If you stumble across a Facebook profile picture or thumbnail that you can't enlarge, follow these steps to view it at full, uncropped resolution:
1) Open up a blank window or tab and paste the following URL into the address bar (do not hit Enter yet): https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/
2) In another window or tab, find the image you want to see and right-click on it. Click "Copy Image URL" or "Copy Image Location."
3) Paste the URL/Image Location into a text file.
4) The end of the URL you just pasted (after the last backslash) will have a string of numbers separated by three undersc ores, and will end in the letter "a," "t," or "q."
5) Copy this string of numbers and paste it into the first window or tab, after the backslash.
6) Change the letter at the end of the string to "n."
7) Hit Enter. Boom!
Remember, no Facebook photos are truly private. If you ever want to share a "private" photo that you found somewhere with a friend, just link directly to that photo by right-clicking on the image and selecting "Copy Image URL" or "Copy Image Location."
Don't go overboard
Starting to get that weird, I'm-going-to-jail-or-Hell feeling? Relax. "There is nothing illegal about finding public information on the Internet," says Wuergler, who has consulted with the Department of Justice on this matter. "It's another story if you use that information to do something illegal, such as real-life stalking, hacking into accounts, or sending someone inappropriate messages." So no, you're not going to jail. (Hell, on the other hand--well that'll also sorta depend on how you use these tricks, wouldn't it?)
All that said, be extremely cautious about anything workplace-related. "Employers are forbidden to ask about job candidates' age, religion, etc.," says Alok Bhardwaj, CEO of privacy software company Hidden Reflex. "This is information a Facebook profile might reveal. In terms of legality, that makes this a gray area--even though many, many employers check Facebook profiles of potential employees."
Got it? Good. Now go find out what the world can see about you.
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