How does the web help people in detective agencies?

Introduction

                Did you know that about 67% of the global population have a digital footprint Detective agency have changed a lot because of the internet. In the past detectives had to rely on mostly what people say or the evidence they find in crime scenes, or looking at documents, or using what suspects say to solve a crime scene. Now the Web helps them find information way faster and track people’s digital footprint. A digital footprint is where you find a trace a person has left behind them when they use the internet, for example social media posts or comments they leave, online purchase, or even your location data. Detectives use this information to solve cases, find missing information they miss in an investigation or even just people that go missing, they also use it to catch criminals.

What are digital footprints?

                A digital footprint is information about a particular person that exists on the internet because of their online activity. There are two different types of digital footprints like active and passive. Active footprint refers to the data you intentionally share online.  For example, if someone uploads a picture or writes a review or comment, they are creating an active footprint. Passive footprint is the data collected about a user online without their direct action or awareness, such as browsing history, IP addresses, or location data. Like websites tracking browsing history, or location data of a phone or the saved cookies you have on your device.

                For detectives’ digital footprints are extremely important and useful. They help track a suspect’s movements, find out what a person might even be doing on the internet, and even discover hidden connections people might have. By studying someone’s online activities detectives can learn a lot about a person’s habits, their hobbies/interests, and their relationships status.

Social Media and Investigations

                One of the biggest ways detectives use the Web is through social media. Many people like to share their personal details and things about their lives online, like who they are, what they are doing with friends/ family. Detectives can look at public social media posts to find out what suspects were doing on the night of a crime or just where they are at a certain time.  

                For example, if someone were to say they were home all night, but they posted a picture from an event they were at, detectives can see you are lying. Social media can also help detectives find out who someone’s relatives are or just who you are connected to.  By looking at likes, comments, or even images you are tagged in, detectives can figure out your relationships with anyone who might be on your friends list. This is helpful in criminal cases, also in missing people investigations, and even fraud cases.

The Deep Web and Dark Web

                Not everything on the internet can be found using a regular search engine. Some parts of the internet, called the deep web and dark web. The deep web is intentionally hidden and accessible only through specialized software like Tor, often associated with anonymity and potentially illegal activities. The deep dark web includes private databases. government records are hidden websites. While the dark web is the part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous. Examples of the dark web would be like illegal activities in other words like selling stolen data or drugs and or weapons.

                Detectives sometimes need to use the dark web or deep web to track criminals. Cybercriminals are people who engage in criminal activity by means of computers or the internet. So, detectives use special software to find illegal activities. This can help them catch people that are involved in hacking, identity theft or human trafficking.

Tracking Locations and Online Activity

                Another way the web helps detectives is by tracking your online activity and location data. Every device connects to the internet has an IP address, which gives the detective the advantage of figuring out where someone was, if someone sent an email, made an online purchase at their favorite store or posted anything to their social media accounts.

                Many websites and apps also collect location data from people. If the suspect uses a smartphone, detectives can track their movement through the GPS app or just by the Wi-Fi you connect to. This is extremely beneficial in cases like kidnapping, or missing people investigations. By putting together digital footprints detectives can create like a chart/ table of your where abouts or what are person is up to.

Recovering Deleted Information

Even if a person tries to delete their digital footprint detectives can still find them using digital forensics. Digital forensics are the scientific process of analyzing electronic data to solve crimes and civil cases. Basically, if someone deletes a message or email detectives can often retrieve it.

                This is useful in crime cases where suspects try and delete messages or emails they send. For example, if someone commits fraud and deletes important information, they used experts can often recover their traces. This also helps in solving cybercrimes, like hacking in online websites.

Ethical and Legal Issues

                Even though the web is helpful to detectives they must follow laws and ethical rules. Privacy law helps protect people’s personal data that detectives can’t get to your personal information by hacking or stealing the information they need from you for their investigation. For a detective to be able to do that they need a warrant to access private messages, emails, or even your phone records.

                While detectives can use the suspects public social media post legally, spying on someone’s society without permission or hacking into their accounts is illegal. It is important for detectives to balance using their usage of technology with also respecting others’ rights.

Conclusion

                The web has made detectives work faster and more effectively by providing digital footprints to help them use that for their investigations. Social media, deep web searches, location tracking and digital forensics help detectives gather all the information that is needed for their case or investigation. However, detectives must also follow the law and respect people’s personal information if they don’t have a warrant to continue their search. As technology improves detective agencies will keep relying more and more on the internet to help get the best outcome for an investigation.

Work Cited