Facebook shuts down Graph Search; investigators scrambling for workarounds

On Thursday, June 6, as I went to one of my favourite tools for online investigation, the one hosted by Michael Bazzell, I instead found a warning saying the service is unavailable. I then jumped over to NetBootCamp, and even to StalkScan, also to be denied. Finally, I manually re-opened some old browser bookmarks on

Will visiting someone’s Facebook page put you on their “People You May Know” List? (Page 3)

Previous Page Second Experiment The follow on experiment was to eliminate the possibility that Irwin, the fake profile, was the cause why PYMK wasn’t triggering.  So I asked Vicky to visit some of my friends that were not her friends to see whether that would trigger PYMK.  She visited them each a different number of

Will visiting someone’s Facebook page put you on their “People You May Know” List? (Page 2)

Previous Page Anecdotes from the Blogosphere I have heard some anecdotal evidence of this phenomenon, both from word of mouth and from internet sources outlined below in screenshots: The Experiment But how can we confirm this phenomenon exists?  I set up a little experiment. I had a friend name Vicky use my fake Facebook profile

Will visiting someone’s Facebook page put you on their “People You May Know” List?

This question stifles many an investigator, and the official stance of Facebook is that it does not report to any Facebook user who’s visiting their Facebook page.  Furthermore, it also ensures that no third party Apps can do so either.  So the good news is no, your ex-girlfriend can’t see how many times you’re checking

Using Internet Archive / Wayback Machine for investigations

Investigators have a common question: what if I could go back in time to see what a website looked like a year ago?  Or even 3 years ago?  What about a week ago?  The Internet Archive provides just such a capability.  Inspired by the fictional WABAC machine from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, which Professor

Social Network Analysis for Law Enforcement

A recent survey conducted by Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions found that about 80% of law enforcement officers use social media platforms to assist in investigations, and 67% of them believe social media helps solve crimes more quickly[1]. Richmond, VA police successfully used Social Network Analysis (SNA) to corroborate evidence collected by detectives in interviews, as

Harmari Doorman for Tax Revenue Estimation

Restaurants, bars and night clubs do not have a good history of tax compliance. Furthermore, software tools such as zappers make it easy to make sales transactions disappear. But now you can have independent revenue estimates using social media metrics, and business background information integrated into one user-friendly report.  Reduce your audit department`s need for