SANTA CRUZ, CA – Many attorneys are warning clients involved in personal injury lawsuits and other litigation to avoid social networking online while their case is pending. A recent American Life Project study shows that about 75% of people who use the Internet send links using social media and email, and that percentage includes judges, attorneys, PIs and insurance providers looking for information about claimants.

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LONDON, ENGLAND – British filmmaker David Bond is trying to determine how far surveillance has gone in our society. His latest project, Erasing David, is his attempt to outwit a group of PIs. Trying to determine whether privacy is even a reality any more, Bond challenged some top British PIs to track him using only public domain information. Considering that the average British citizen pops up on at least one of the four million public surveillance cameras in England daily and is registered on over 700 databases, living off the grid might be challenging.

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NEWPORT BEACH, CA - It’s not the typical PI assignment: Guess and Maxim model Bree Condon hired a PI to track down someone who was posing as “Bree Condon” – complete with photos of the real Bree Condon – on the dating website SeekingMillionaire.com. What PIs discovered was a man named Justin Brown, posing as Condon on the dating site to lure and scam men of money. Brown posted pictures of Condon and used his feminine voice to convince men that he was Condon during long romantic phone conversations. His scheme allowed him to scam wealthy men out of tens of thousands of dollars. All the men believed they were dating Condon, although Brown was careful to never permit a face-to-face meeting. Now, Brown in being investigated by authorities and has been indicted on a felony theft charge.

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BOCA RATON, FL – A data mining project run by Hank Asher has set up offices in South Florida. Here, the former drug smuggler has a space filled with computers and technology that help investigators track down pedophiles, felons and more. Ashner’s project includes Accurint, one of his most successful database projects. Accurint allows investigators to find addresses, licenses and close relatives of just about anyone. Asher has amassed a huge collection of public records and has combined them in database products that make it easy for investigators to track down information. While investigators are excited about Asher’s projects, privacy advocates are worried that Asher’s close work with government investigators gives him access to personal records — such as health records — which could eventually fall into the hands of private businesses, thanks to Asher’s enterprise.

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BREVARD, FL – The Brevard Workforce Express is a large bus filled with computer terminals and other resources designed to help people find good jobs. The bus is staffed by career counselors and includes everything job hunters need to search for jobs, update their resumes and get training. The bus has been busy near the Kennedy Space Center, plagued by layoffs. At least one security person at the space center used the bus to apply for a PI license. Career counselors at the Brevard Workforce Express can help employees apply for PI licenses and encourage qualified workers to do so, as PIs are in demand, say counselors. Brevard Workforce Express takes care of license application fees for would-be PIs as well.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – IT has shaped the PI industry in the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s. In the 1990s, some unscrupulous PIs were buying information from people who were using computer technology to legally access the information. By the early 2000s, some experts claim PIs were using Trojan horses to glean information from computers. Experts note that due diligence investigations and investigations for assurance have become more important over the past two decades as high-profile cases of fraud (such as the case involving Bernard Madoff) have come to light. Security cases have also become more important, especially after September 11, 2001. This has meant that PIs have had to hone a whole new set of skills. While in the early 1990s computer technology skills were a nice asset for a PI to have, They are now a mainstay of the business.

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ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – Last week, PInow.com staff reported about news from Australia suggesting that parents there are hiring PIs to keep tabs on their children. Recently, a new technology, Bully Stop, was released in Australia to help parents do just that. Bully Stop allows parents to use a computer program to control a child’s incoming information. Parents using the system can create a “block list” and approved list of contacts, check their children’s text messages, and more. Bully Stop is created by Virtual Mobile Application Development.

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TORONTO, CANADA – A recent column in the Globe and Mail newspaper considers whether we have really become a surveillance society – or whether it only seems that way because in living an online life we willingly give up our privacy. The column points out that it’s not surveillance cameras we necessarily need to worry about – it’s our desire to share online, which allows just about anyone to access pictures of us as well as our personal information. Writer Hal Niedzviecki has described ours as a culture of “mass voyeurism,” a culture where we enjoy peering into other lives while allowing others to look in on ours.

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VANCOUVER, CANADA – Today, cheating has become simpler in a world of cell phones and instant messages – trysts can easily be arranged through a mobile device in seconds. However, PIs and infidelity experts warn that mobile devices which enable cheating also make it much easier to catch cheaters. Cell phones can be hacked by suspicious spouses and tracking devices on cars can easily lead investigators or a spouse to a hotel room or other secret location. Even deleted phone records and computer records can easily be retrieved by a PI or computer experts. PI John Sullivan notes that most affairs leave an electronic trail – including emails, text messages, cell phone entries, Internet records, images on surveillance cameras, social networking photos and more – that make the discovery of an infidelity inevitable.

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LONDON, ENGLAND – François Eales has made many online purchases with no problem, but when he recently tried to buy a Sony Vaio laptop he found that the seller disappeared after collecting money for the purchase. While police are investigating, Eales hired a PI to track the seller. The PI found that the seller’s account is filled with money and is located in Nambia. The PI Eales hired also noted that while many online transactions are legitimate, Eales seller appears to be part of a larger syndicate of fraudsters, possibly involved in money laundering.

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