OK, I promise, no more gold analogies since I don’t want anyone to think I’m a 49ers fan. At the heart of the matter are digital photos, meaning photos that aren’t taken with an old fashioned camera that (the horror) actually uses film. These photos, like most things in the digital world, have a lot of information associated with them, including date taken, type of camera used, photo resolution, file size, etc. Place your cursor over the photo, right click, choose “properties” and then the “details” tab, and voila, that information is there for the taking. This and other data not mentioned is called “Exchangeable Image File Format” (EXIF), and it can be very useful to photographers and others working with digital images.

The problem starts with the fact that for more and more people, their smartphone is also their camera. Unlike cameras, which are oblivious to where the person holding them is when snapping a photo, the smartphones have GPS capability and know exactly where the person holding them is. And remember EXIF? Well, one facet of EXIF is called “geotagging”, which details the exact location of the image when taken. Before smartphones became people’s cameras, the geotagging data went unused but, for folks using smartphones as cameras, the geotagging data is captured in each photo.

Now initially I’d imagine some people thought “so what if my photos have the GPS coordinates in them, it’s not like the whole world sees my photos”. And just a decade ago, that was true. But then came the internet and the Narcissist’s Nirvana, better known as Facebook. And with Facebook, it became possible for everyone who owned a smartphone and who had a hearty ego and/or intense need for attention, to delude themselves into believing that all 879 of their Facebook friends would love to see all 1,000+ photos of their recent trip to WallyWorld. And, depending on the privacy settings selected, it’s likely that many more than someone’s 879 friends can see their photos.

Now why should you be concerned? Off the top of my head, I can think of at least a few worrisome scenarios. For starters, unsavory characters like stalkers and burglars could figure out your home address from photos uploaded to a social networking site. If that’s not bad enough, they could then wait until you’re on vacation or on a business trip (which folks tend to indicate while still away) and rob your empty home.

Now here’s the good news:
1. Many sites strip out the EXIF geotag information when users upload images.
2. One of the sites that does strip out that information is Facebook.
3. While Flickr and Picasa do offer options to download originals of uploaded images, which may include EXIF geotag data, the default option is to keep this information private.
4. Users can deactivate geotagging functionality in their smartphones with these clicks in the settings menu.

So, in a nutshell, there’s no need to panic and immediately delete every photo you ever posted online. Depending on the device used to take photos and the website to which the images were uploaded, geotagging may be a non-issue. But the reality is a lot of information people assume to be inaccessible is actually very easy to find. I never cease to be amazed by how much personal information a total stranger can gather about someone, using only publicly accessible internet resources, with relatively little effort. I always advocate using common sense, and eliminating unnecessary risk whenever possible. While the risk is very small that your house is going to be robbed by someone who sees photos you’re posting to Facebook while still on vacation, I recommend waiting until you get home to post the photos.

Later that day, a friend of Afifi’s named Khaled posted photos of the device on Reddit.com, inquiring whether any readers could identify the device and if it meant “the FBI is after us”. A reader quickly identified the device: the Orion Guardian ST820 tracking device, manufactured by electronics company Cobham and sold only to law enforcement agencies.

As Afifi considered selling the device on Craigslist, his roommate noticed two suspicious people loitering by his car outside. As Afifi got in his car and drove off to run errands, he was quickly approached by two SUV’s with flashing lights and men wearing bullet-proof vests. I’m guessing at this point Afifi envisioned a hood being thrown over his head, after which he’d be whisked off in a Lear Jet to Morocco or some other distant land, where his hosts would provide free entertainment in the form of waterboarding and sleep deprivation. Instead, an agent confronted Afifi, and told him that they were there to collect their GPS tracker, which they could do the easy way or the Rendition way. He chose the easy way, they asked some questions and explained the inspiration for tracking him (largely a red flag-producing blog post by his friend Khaled), and the ordeal was pretty much over.

But this story does bring up a few key concerns that private investigators should consider when employing GPS tracking as a tool in their case work:

1. GPS tracking law is determined at the State level, and each State’s laws often are different. It’s the private investigator’s responsibility to know the law and ensure that the device is being used in accordance with it, because regardless of what the client says or wants, it’s the P.I. who will end up in the clink if the law is broken. In some States, the law is that a GPS tracker can be used only on vehicles owned by or registered to the person who grants the private eye permission via written authorization.

2. While the FBI has the assets and capability to use GPS trackers powered by the car battery, the average private investigator will be using a battery-powered device. And like all things in life, battery-powered GPS trackers involve a tradeoff, namely the size of the unit vs. the duration of the tracking. Some units offer a big waterproof case which can house both the GPS and an extended life battery and claim can be used for up to 30 days. The issue is that the case is fairly large, like a brick sliced in half the long way, which would easily draw the attention of anyone looking underneath the vehicle. The units with a shorter life of up to a week are much smaller, some as small as half the size of a pack of cigarettes. I can offer one piece of advice: For the units that use the AAA batteries, the quality of battery DOES matter, and a high quality battery can dramatically extend the battery life of the unit and, consequently, the length of time it can be left on the car to gather data.

3. Private investigators should ask their clients about any upcoming vehicle maintenance, from oil changes to 60k mile checkups. Since I’d advise the private eye to take a retainer covering the damage to or loss of the GPS for any reason (including discovery by an oil change tech), they shouldn’t have to worry about it being found, in theory. However, even if it’s the client’s fault, because they should have realized the vehicle was scheduled for maintenance on the dates the GPS would be deployed, discovery of the GPS will lead to a VERY unhappy client. Besides having to foot the bill for the lost unit, after gaining no intelligence from it, they’d also have to deal with the fallout from their spouse finding out that they’d had a private eye put a GPS tracker on their car. And that fallout would likely impact the P.I.’s future revenue, since the spouse would consequently limit any suspicious behavior and the client would have less reason and opportunity to retain the private investigator’s services.

A number of the major mobile phone service providers offer “family locator” products which give parents the ability to see the real time location of their child on interactive maps they can view on the computer or smart phone. Parents can also define locations or areas, and receive updates when their children arrive at or depart from those locations, or enter/exit pre-set boundaries. Verizon and Sprint each offer “family locator” products, which cost between $5 and $10 a month, and are easy to set up, use and maintain.

The concerns that keep parents awake at night haven’t really changed all that much over the years, since moms and dads across the country still worry about how fast their kids are driving, who they’re talking to and hanging out with, and the simplest but probably most important one of all: where exactly they are. And frankly, the dangers children face haven’t changed all that much either, save for one BIG one that popped up about 15 years ago: the information super highway, a.k.a. the internet. The good news is that while the primary fears of parents and dangers to children haven’t changed much, technology now gives parents a number of solutions to help them. Parents contact me quite frequently, seeking advice on solutions to help them with monitoring their children in three main areas:

1. Driving
2. Internet
3. Location

I’ll cover each of the topics in separate blog posts over the next few weeks, starting with…

DRIVING:

The risks associated with teenagers driving are obvious, namely that as inexperienced drivers, they are far more prone to be involved in accidents than adults with more years of driving experience. In fact, car crashes are the leading cause of death among 15-20 year olds in the USA, so parents’ concern in this area is understandable and justified. Fortunately, the same GPS tracking technology we use in infidelity-related cases enables parents to monitor their children’s driving remotely.

In a nutshell, the parents hook up a small device (size ranges from a pack of gum to a pack of cigarettes) to the vehicle the teen will be driving. The device is constantly communicating with GPS satellites and records the vehicle’s speed and location. There are a number of products available in this space, and the more advanced solutions can be set up to automatically email, SMS or call parents if the teen is speeding or has ventured some place they shouldn’t be going. Some even enable parents to remotely sound an alarm, flash lights, or honk the car horn if they get an email that their child is currently doing 95mph in a 25mph zone. Brickhouse Security offers a number of products, including this GPS tracking device which is small but has a lot of great features.

Check back soon for my next blog post on tracking children’s online activity…

1.  The private investigator is anonymous to the subject.

One of the main reasons most people hire a PI is because they know they are likely to be recognized and caught if they try to do the work themselves. If you are trying to follow your cheating spouse, it is almost certain that he will recognize your car or spot you, and your cover will be blown. Not only will this result in embarrassment for you or suspicion by him, but it will jeopardize the entire case. If your spouse now believes you are suspicious of his behavior, he will be more cautious in the future, making it more difficult to catch him.

2.  Private investigators can legally conduct surveillance.

Clients often mistakenly believe they can follow their spouse and use any evidence found in subsequent court testimony. However, in Connecticut for example, your spouse or significant other can have you arrested for stalking if you are following them. If you are charged with stalking, any evidence you find would’ve been obtained illegally and could be inadmissible in court. Only the police and private investigators are exempt from this law and legally allowed to follow individuals and record their activities.

3.  Private investigators are skilled at investigative work.

Being a private investigator requires many skills beyond knowing how to drive and take photos. If you’ve ever tried following a friend’s car to a restaurant, for example, you know how easy it is to lose them on the highway or at a traffic light – and this is when they want you to follow them! So imagine trying to follow someone who doesn’t want to be followed, you may not know the intended destination, and you’re trying to avoid being obvious and getting caught. A private investigator has to be not only constantly aware of a subject’s every move, but also able to anticipate likely actions. Because moving surveillance is so difficult, it is sometimes recommended for multiple agents to be on the case at the same time or, at the very least, for a private investigator to change attire or even vehicles during a surveillance case. 

Besides being surveillance experts, private investigators must master many technologies. They need to know how to use overt and covert cameras, install and download surveillance software, keystroke loggers and GPS trackers, perform counter surveillance, retrieve deleted computer files, find elusive background information online, and much more. Above everything, they know which investigative technique is best to use when and how to handle themselves if their cover is blown, to avoid jeopardizing the case. 

4.  Private investigators know the law.

Gathering evidence is of little use if it’s not admissible in court or, even worse, if the activity is illegal and lands you in jail. A private investigator knows what is and isn’t legal and the proper way to gather evidence in order for it to be admissible in court. For example, you can place a GPS tracker on your spouse’s vehicle as long as the vehicle is registered in your name or is intended for use by the family. This usually means you cannot place a GPS tracking device on your girlfriend or boyfriend’s car. The same law applies to installing surveillance software on a computer. In a situation where a client wants to perform an activity that is illegal, a professional private investigator will know of and suggest an alternate solution which is legal.

5.  Surveillance is time-consuming.

Surveillance is often time-consuming and, to the surprise of many, can be very boring. In an average surveillance case, a private investigator might spend an entire evening sitting in a vehicle watching a building door for a subject to emerge. It is unlikely that the first time you conduct surveillance on a subject, that person commits the very activity you were hired to catch. More often than not, a private investigator will need to conduct surveillance on multiple occasions in order to catch someone in the act. It’s just the nature of the work. Most clients have a full-time job or other responsibilities preventing them from spending large quantities of time following their spouse or significant other.