In the age of social media, our online profiles contain a wealth of information about us. With just a few clicks, someone could learn your name, location, workplace, interests, and more. This has led some people to take an interest in “profile tracking” – the practice of gathering information on individuals from their online profiles and activity. But does profile tracking really work? Can someone learn all about you just from looking at your social media accounts? Let’s take a closer look.
What is profile tracking?
Profile tracking refers to the practice of aggregating information on a person from their various online profiles and accounts. This may include social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well as professional sites like GitHub and StackOverflow. The goal is to build up a comprehensive picture of an individual’s identity, interests, habits, location, job, education, relationships, and more.
Some of the data points a profile tracker may look for include:
- Name
- Profile photos
- Location and places visited
- Employer and job title
- Schools attended
- Interests and hobbies
- Who they are connected to or friends with
- Posts, shares, likes
- Groups and communities they are part of
This data can be aggregated to form detailed dossiers on individuals. While individuals freely provide much of this information on their profiles, some profile trackers use more advanced techniques like social engineering and network analysis to learn even more.
Why do people profile track?
There are several motivations behind profile tracking:
- Marketing and advertising – Companies may profile track to better understand their target demographics and customize advertising.
- Business intelligence – Recruiters, salespeople, and other professionals often research people online before interacting with them to better understand their background and interests.
- Dating and relationships – People sometimes profile track romantic interests or first dates to learn more about them.
- Security and investigations – Law enforcement and private investigators may profile track individuals of interest in security or legal investigations.
- Curiosity or boredom – Some people profile track casually out of curiosity or for entertainment.
- Privacy concerns – Activists concerned about privacy may profile track to raise awareness of how much data people unknowingly make public.
While some of these motivations are benign, others have raised concerns about privacy, stalking, and fair use of data. Heavy profiling of an individual or group can make people feel exposed or unsafe.
How is profile tracking done?
Here are some of the approaches used in profiling tracking:
- Manual searching – Individually looking up names across different social networks and compiling information.
- Friends lists – Looking at a person’s friends/connections to find identifying details about them.
- Reverse image search – Using facial recognition to match profile photos to social accounts.
- Social network analysis – Analyzing the connections between groups of people to uncover hidden links.
- Browsing archives – Viewing historical social media data on sites like the Wayback Machine.
- Monitoring tools – Using software tools that automatically compile social media activity.
- Data brokers – Buying data profiles from data broker companies that aggregate people’s information.
- Public records – Accessing legal documents, property records, licenses, court cases etc. for clues.
With the wealth of data we produce online, even basic manual profile tracking can glean a lot about a person very quickly. More sophisticated methods that make use of specialized tools and algorithms take this to another level.
Limitations of profile tracking
While profile tracking can uncover a startling amount of information, it does have some limitations:
- Not everyone has an online presence – Some people intentionally stay off social media or use pseudonyms.
- Important context is missing – Online profiles rarely paint a complete picture of someone’s life situation, personality, and relationships.
- People embellish online – What people share online tends to present an idealized portrait, not objective truth.
- Old information persists – Unless someone vigilantly deletes old posts, outdated information may linger online.
- Hard to confirm accuracy – Just because someone states something about themselves online does not make it true.
- Can miss private activity – Secretive or illegal behavior is unlikely to be posted publicly.
- Doesn’t include physical data – There are limits to what online data can convey about someone’s more physical attributes and mannerisms.
In essence, profile tracking provides a patchwork of data points that require interpretation. Making definitive assessments about an individual solely from their online footprint is prone to missing or misreading key facts about them. Integrating online data tracking with other sources of intelligence provides a more realistic picture.
Is profile tracking legal?
The legality of profile tracking depends on both the methods used and the purpose behind it. In general:
- Using public data like social media posts is usually legal, assuming terms of service are followed.
- Private investigators require a license to legally profile track someone.
- Stalking, harassment, or threats based on profile tracking can be illegal.
- Mass collection and retention of profile data may violate privacy laws like the GDPR or CCPA.
- Impersonation, hacking, or accessing non-public info often breaks laws.
- Law enforcement requires legal authority like a warrant or subpoena to profile track for an investigation.
Additionally, social networks like Facebook have engineered their privacy settings specifically to protect against illicit profile tracking. Purposefully circumventing these protections is an abuse of the platforms.
In summary, individuals have fairly broad leeway to casually profile track people based on public social media data. However, coordinated tracking, scraping data, attempting to learn non-public info, or profiling with malicious intent can cross legal and ethical lines quite quickly.
Best practices for personal profile tracking
For individuals who profile track for personal reasons like dating or marketing research, some best practices include:
- Review social media terms of service and respect platform bans on scraping or inappropriate use.
- Only look up people you have a direct, legitimate interest in learning more about.
- Avoid seeking out or saving non-public, deleted, or de-activated information.
- Consider whether some details are intended for certain audiences and not others.
- Do not contact an individual or make decisions about them based solely on profile tracking.
- Periodically purge tracking data that is no longer current or relevant.
- Use privacy-preserving tools like VPNs, private browsing, and anonymous accounts.
If opting to use automated scraping or monitoring tools, only use reputable services that align with your tracking goals and respect people’s privacy. Overall, a mindset of minimizing unnecessary data collection and considering people’s reasonable privacy expectations will keep personal profile tracking ethical.
How can I tell if someone profile tracked me?
Some signs your profile may have been tracked include:
- A spike in views of your social media profiles from unknown people.
- Friend or connection requests from strangers who seem to know things about you.
- Ads that eerily align with details you have not made public.
- Being approached by someone who seems to know a lot about you but you have not met.
- Receiving suspicious links to profile scam sites.
- Google results for your name turning up unexpected personal details.
- Learning details about your online activity you did not opt to share.
Many of these could have innocent explanations. But if they persist, it may indicate someone is devoting extensive effort to aggregating data about you from online sources.
How can I protect myself against unwanted tracking?
You can take these steps to guard your online privacy:
- Review and lock down your social media privacy settings.
- Be wary of connecting with strangers online.
- Periodically Google yourself to see what turns up.
- Don’t use an identifiable photo for anonymous accounts.
- Limit sharing of personal stories and photos publicly.
- Delete or restrict old posts and accounts with sensitive details.
- Opt out of people search sites like Spokeo and Whitepages.
- Use a service like DeleteMe to remove online information.
- Monitor your online reputation to dispute or report illicit tracking.
Ultimately, being thoughtful about what data you share publicly online limits your exposure to unwanted tracking. But realistically, determined profile trackers can still glean a lot in aggregate from even selective online engagement.
Should I profile track a romantic interest?
Searching social media to learn about a new romantic interest is very common. However, consider these factors when deciding if and how much to profile track someone you are dating or interested in:
- Light tracking to verify someone’s identity and what they share about themselves is generally fine.
- Obsessively tracking and cataloguing their history, friends, location data etc. becomes invasive.
- Consider waiting to learn sensitive details like past relationships from the person directly instead.
- Tracking and then confronting someone with things they haven’t voluntarily shared with you violates trust.
- Profile tracking is not a substitute for getting to know someone organically in person.
- If tracking makes you distrust, judge, or feel insecure about someone, examine if you are making unfair assumptions.
In moderation, using social media to better understand a potential romantic partner’s interests and lifestyle can benefit new relationships. But taken too far, it distorts into unhealthy stalking behavior and removes the chance to authentically build intimacy.
What tools are used for profile tracking?
Some common tools used in profiling tracking include:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| Social Searcher | Aggregates social media profiles and activity across platforms. |
| Spokeo | Compiles phone, address, property records, and other identification data. |
| Wolfram Alpha | Computational knowledge engine gathers data from public sources. |
| Maltego | Link analysis and data mining for finding connections between people. |
| Pimeyes | Facial recognition used to connect profile photos across sites. |
| Geofeedia | Collects and analyzes location-based social media data. |
Many other specialized data broker services and social media monitoring tools exist as well, for both legal and questionable uses. Powerful AI-driven analytics are also making profile tracking increasingly automated and far-reaching.
Is profile tracking used commercially?
Yes, profile tracking is used heavily by companies for purposes like:
- Targeted advertising – Building profiles on users for personalized ads.
- Determining creditworthiness – Assessing loan and credit risks.
- Providing business leads – Sales and recruiting outreach.
- Adjusting insurance premiums – Via behavioral analysis.
- Conducting background checks – Vetting applicants.
- Predicting operational risks – Flagging safety, fraud, or conduct concerns.
- Personalizing customer service – Tailoring interactions based on user data.
The depth of commercial tracking varies. While some usage aligns with consumer expectations, excessive tracking and profiling without transparency or consent raises substantial ethical and regulatory concerns.
Commercial tracking concerns
Some specific concerns around the business use of profile tracking include:
- Privacy intrusions from collecting excessive data on users.
- Invasive surveillance-style tracking of employee activities.
- Lack of informed consent around data usage.
- Biased and discriminatory decisions based on profiling correlations.
- Violations of equal opportunity laws.
- Security risks from centralized databases of profile and behavioral data.
- Outdated or inaccurate data harming consumers.
For these reasons, many laws now restrict commercial profiling and its use in areas like hiring and credit decisions. Companies face growing pressure for transparency around their tracking activities and usage of the resulting data.
Should employers profile track job candidates?
It is common for employers to review job candidates’ social media profiles during the hiring process. However, ethical and legal considerations around profiling tracking candidates include:
- Restrict searches to what candidates have made public voluntarily.
- Avoid using profile data to judge characteristics like race, religion, family status, disabilities etc.
- Focus any checks on assessing qualifications and conduct directly relevant to the job.
- Do not let unofficial profile data supersede a candidate’s actual credentials and interview performance.
- Obtain a candidate’s consent before formally using tracking services for background checks.
- Be mindful that online profiles rarely convey a complete professional picture.
Respecting a candidate’s privacy and right to equal opportunity is paramount. While social media can provide some relevant insights, employers should limit tracking scope and rely primarily on a candidate’s direct application credentials.
Conclusion
Profile tracking certainly can reveal a wealth of personal data through aggregating online activity and public records. However, substantial gaps and questions remain in building a complete picture of an individual strictly from their digital footprint. Tracking must balance inherent limitations against privacy and fairness considerations for its responsible use as an intelligence source.
With thoughtful constraints, profile tracking provides value in understanding people and patterns. But it should not override individual rights or be considered an infallible data source. Ongoing legal and ethical debates will shape the future role of profile tracking in commerce, security, and society.