INB4 creepiest thread on the forum.
At some point in my life, I got very proficient at finding information about people online. In most cases, finding information about people is as easy as doing a search for them on Google or social networking sites.
Some people, however, don't want to be found. And, in some cases, you may want more information than what they make readily available.
Unfortunately, this is not an exact science, and it can be a lot of hard work. If you were a real detective or private investigator, then you may have access to resources that could make it more of an exact science, but most of us aren't in that kind of position.
I won't get into specifics for now, but the gist of it boils down to a few principles and a general process:
#1 Think of everything you already know about the person, and write it down. Make it visual. Create a map if necessary. Draw connections. Brainstorm/hypothesize further connections and test them with online queries.
#2 Start thinking less about the person in question - who likely doesn't want to be found - to people who they may or may not have relations with - who may or may not be ambivalent and/or overshare on the internet. This is perhaps the single principle that has worked the most for me, i.e. instead of focusing too heavily on the person of interest, I shift my focus to their known 1st level relations, then known 2nd level relations, 3rd etc. When that exhausts itself, I shift to hypothetical 1st, 2nd, 3rd level relations.
#3 Meatspace queries. This is where things veer to the creepy/suspicious side of things if you're not careful, but it doesn't have to be that way. Use your eyes. Be observant. This obviously doesn't work as well if the person in question doesn't live/work/play anywhere near you. PIs & detectives work within this realm for a reason, because it's the most fruitful. Online is a cheap effigy. A license plate on a car can in most cases reveal to a police officer all they want to know, but sometimes even just knowing the state can fill in information for you, or the model of the car, the year, bumperstickers, etc, whatever.
I guess this really just boils down to being logical, observant, and capable of juggling a lot of information in your mind and envisioning their relationships as well as hypothesizing new ones and testing the degree to which they match reality. Most importantly. You just have to be determined (perhaps obsessed - not with the person {which could cloud judgement}, but with the process of finding the information). You need an I'm Not Going To Be Beat sort of mentality.
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Oddly enough, I've found that this sort of tenacious activity can exercise your mind in a way that prepares you for other endeavors, such as programming, or whatever. Probably just about anything.
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EDIT: Oh, and obviously be aware of how indexing works. Search engines can typically find text in PDFs and other documents assuming that they're well placed, but it's not the same with, say, imbedded imagery.
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