Facebook's large user base and immense data collection make it a goldmine for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT) investigations. 

Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT), a branch of OSINT, focuses specifically on collecting information from social media platforms. Every social media platform, however, is unique, necessitating tailored guidance for effective OSINT investigations.

(Check out our SOCMINT guides for TikTok, Discord and Reddit here.)

In this Facebook OSINT/SOCMINT guide, we will cover how to leverage tools and techniques to collect and analyze information found on Facebook for intelligence purposes.

Facebook 101

Facebook is a company owned by Meta (which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp) and remains one of the pioneering social media platforms globally. According to Demandsage, at the end of 2024, Facebook maintained over 3.07 billion monthly active users worldwide (see Figure 1), representing 59.38% of the global social media population. 

Figure 1 - Facebook number of users worldwide | Source: https://www.demandsage.com/facebook-statistics

Facebook was first started in 2004 as a social network platform at Harvard University. However, it eventually evolved into a global communications powerhouse that transformed digital social interaction across the globe (see Figure 2). The platform's dominance originates from its diverse functionality, which incorporates personal profiles, business pages, marketplace features, and sophisticated advertising tools.

Figure 2 - Comparison of social media platforms usage worldwide | Source: https://datareportal.com/social-media-users

Why is Facebook important for OSINT analysts?

Facebook serves as a critical intelligence source for OSINT analysts. The platform's importance for OSINT operations stems from:

1. Massive user base

Facebook has more than 3 billion active users, making it full of personal and organizational data that could be used to support various intelligence needs. 

2. Variety of content types and topics 

Facebook users share all types of content on the platform, such as text posts, images, videos and geolocation information. Most of this data is shared publicly with limited privacy settings. OSINT gatherers can leverage such info to track movements, create timelines of events and verify identities.

3. Social network relationship visibility

Inspecting Facebook friends lists, followers, and groups provides insight into social and business relationships. This allows OSINT analysts to map connections between individuals, organizations, or groups.

4. Facebook Groups 

Facebook has millions of groups. These groups contain users from diverse backgrounds, and many groups specialize in specific areas, such as sports, entertainment, or social connections. Inspecting these groups could reveal trends, threats or emerging issues.

5. Facebook Events 

Facebook is the preferred platform for people worldwide to organize gatherings, protests or meetings. Monitoring these gatherings allows for predicting future trends and understanding people's sentiments in a particular geographical region.

6. Geolocation data 

Many Facebook users share their geo data through check-ins, posts and geotagged images. OSINT gatherers can use this information to reveal current locations, track individual movements or verify location claims.

Facebook’s Basic Structure

There are mainly two types of Facebook accounts:

1. Personal Profile Accounts

These are designed for individual users and represent real people. They are used to connect with family members and friends. 

Personal account users can do the following:

• Share personal updates (via text posts or by uploading images and videos, or tagging users).
• Control who sees their content using public, friends only or custom visibility settings.
• Join or create groups
• Create, invite, or be invited to events
• Interact with personal and business or brand pages  
• Have up to 5000 friends and followers.

2. Business/Brand Page Accounts

To create a Business or Brand Facebook page, you need first to have an individual Facebook account.

Facebook business pages are classified into distinct categories based on their purpose and ownership. In the business and commerce sector, pages can represent local businesses, places such as shops and restaurants, specific brands or products in the consumer goods market, or entire companies and corporations. Organizations can establish pages for institutions like schools, hospitals, non-profit organizations, and professional associations.

Public figures maintain pages for artists and performers, musicians and bands, as well as politicians and celebrities who need a professional presence. Special interest pages cover entertainment venues, social causes and movements, and community groups serving specific audiences.   

Business pages have the following features: 

• They can have an unlimited number of followers; however, unlike personal accounts, they cannot add friends.
• Provides access to Facebook Business Suite for managing posts, advertising, and analytics.
• Create new pages and manage catalogs and ads.

A Note on Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are communities where people with common interests can connect. Groups can be either public, private, or hidden. Groups can be created by either personal profiles or business pages.

How to Use Facebook Search for OSINT Investigations

Facebook’s built-in search functionality allows you to find all types of content available on its platform. (See Figure 3.) 

Figure 3 - Facebook built-in search feature 

Here is how to Facebook’s built-in search feature on desktop:

1. Find the search box in the top left corner of the page. Insert your search query and hit Enter.
2. Facebook provides numerous filters to refine your results. Such as, “Search within”:

Posts

• Recent Posts – show the most recent posts that match your search query
• Posts You've Seen – see only the posts you’ve already seen before
• Date Posted – select the year of the post
• Posts From – select who created the post, out of you, your friends, anyone, the pages and groups you follow on Facebook or public posts
• Tagged Location – Specify the location of the post, such as New York, London, Dubai. etc.  

People

• Friends/Anyone/Friends of Friends – This option lets you control the scope of your search. "Friends" limits the search to people in your direct friend circle. "Anyone" searches across all Facebook users (privacy settings still apply and may limit returned results). "Friends of Friends" searches among the people connected to your friends
• Specify the City where the person you're looking for lives or has listed as their Location.
• Education – Specify the school or college that the person attended
• Work – This filter allows you to specify the company or organization where the person works or has worked, such as company name (e.g., PageFreezer, Apple, Microsoft)  

Photos

• Posted by – Anyone, Your Friends, You, or Your Friends and Groups.
• Photo Type – This filter allows you to choose between "All Photos" (the most comprehensive search) and "Photos You've Seen."  The latter can be useful for finding photos you remember seeing but can't locate otherwise.
• Tagged Location – Allows you to search for photos based on the geographical Location where they were tagged.
• Date Posted – Determine the year when the photo was posted to Facebook.  

Videos

• Sort By – This filter lets you choose how the videos are ordered on the search results page. "Relevance" sorts videos based on how closely they match your search terms, while "Most Recent" sorts them chronologically.
• Date Posted – This filter allows you to specify the timeframe when the video was posted. Options include "Any Date" (the broadest search), "Today," "This Month," and "This Week."  This can help you find recently uploaded videos.
• Live – Shows videos that are currently being broadcast live.

Marketplace

• Category – This allows you to narrow down your search to specific product categories. (e.g., furniture, computers, home appliances)
• Location – You can set a radius around a particular location to find items near you.
• Price – You can specify a price range to filter out items according to their price.
• Condition – You can often filter by the condition of the item (e.g., new, like new, used).

Pages

• Location – Anywhere or select a city
• Category – Any Category, Local Business or Place, Company, organization or, Institution, Brand or Product, Artist, band, or Public Figure (see Figure 4) 
  

Figure 4 - The Facebook Pages filters

• Open Now – See businesses that are currently open.
• Delivery – Show you businesses, such as restaurants, that offer delivery services.
• Takeout – Shows businesses that offer takeout or curbside pickup.
• Location – Specify the area where you're searching for places.  
• Visited by Friends – shows you places that your Facebook friends have visited.
• Price – The price filter lets you narrow down your search based on the price range of the businesses. It typically uses symbols like $, to indicate the relative cost of goods or services.

Figure 5 - The Facebook Places search filters 

Groups

• City – Specify the city where you are interested in finding Facebook groups.
• Near Me – This filter uses your current location to show you Facebook groups that are geographically close to you.
• Public Groups – This filter returns only public Facebook groups.
• My Groups – This shows you the Facebook groups that you are already a member of.

Events 

• Dates – Allows you to specify the timeframe for the events.
• Location – Determine the geographic area of the events you are looking for. 
• Categories – This filter allows you to narrow down events based on their type, such as Comedy, Visual Arts or Crafts.
• Popular with friends – This filter shows you events that are popular with your Facebook friends. 
• Online events – This filter shows events that are being currently held online, such as webinars, live streams, or virtual workshops.
• Paid events – Shows you events that require a ticket or registration fee to attend.
• Family Friendly – Displays events that are suitable for all ages 

Analyzing Individual Facebook Profiles for OSINT 

Personal Facebook profiles are valuable sources of information for several investigative purposes. For instance, they provide: 

• Basic biographical information about the user, such as name, location, workplace and education.
• Reveal network connections of the person, such as their friends, family relationships, professional associations.
• Timeline activity showing patterns of life.
• Photo and video collections could reveal locations, activities, and relationships.
• Check-ins and location tags that establish movement patterns.
• Group memberships indicating interests and affiliations.

Let us begin inspecting individual Facebook profiles, starting with Facebook Display Name and Username.

Facebook Username and Display Name

Each Facebook personal account can have a display name and a username. The main differences between them are as follows (see Figure 6):

• The display name is the one that appears on your profile, posts, comments, and interactions
  • Note: Facebook has a ‘real name’ policy where users are supposed to use the first and last name that they use in everyday life.
• Usernames uniquely identify Facebook personal profiles, pages, and groups. It appears in the URL and for tagging people in posts.
  • The username can be changed after creation. However, this is not allowed to happen frequently.
• Usernames may contain a combination of letters, numbers, and periods. Spaces are not allowed in the username 
• No two Facebook accounts can have the same username. However, the same display name can be used by any user.

Figure 6 - Facebook username appears in the profile URL, while the Display name appears next to the profile photo  

Investigating Facebook Display Names for Meaning

Many Facebook users, contrary to Facebook’s real name policy, use a display name other than their first and last name. The display name could be used in other places online (for example, on different social media platforms) and/or could have a particular meaning for the user. When the Facebook display name is not the first and last name of the profile owner, we should search to see where else it appears online. 

Here are some Google Dorks to search for display names:

• "Display Name" filetype:html – This query searches for display name in HTML files
• intitle:"Display Name" - This query searches for web pages with "Display Name" in the title
• inurl:"Display Name" -  This query searches for URLs containing "Display Name"
• "Display Name" site:example.com - This searches for the exact phrase "Display Name" specifically within the domain example.com
• "Display Name" (profile OR bio OR about) filetype:html -inurl:forum -inurl:comment - This query searches for "Display Name" within HTML files, it specifically looks for it in sections related to profiles, bios or about pages. It then excludes results from forums and comment sections, which are highly likely to return irrelevant results

Understanding the cultural meaning of the display name is also important, as it could reveal important information related to our investigation. Here are some online services to help you understand the meaning of names.

• Names
• Behind the Name
• The Bump

Investigating Facebook Usernames

A user could use the same Facebook username on different platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit. Inspect all social networks with accounts that have the same target username. Here are some online services and tools to perform reverse username searches:

• Usersearch
• Instant Username Search
• Maigret – A simple command line tool for reverse username search 
• Sherlock – A tool for searching for usernames across 400 social media platforms 
• Emora-Project – Another tool for reverse username search. It comes with a graphical user interface

Potential Facebook Name Alias Identification

A Facebook "username" or "display name" could have other aliases similar to it. For example, the name "Pedram" could use the following aliases:

• P3dram
• PΞdram (using a stylized "E")
• Pedr@m
• P.e.d.r.a.m (spaced out with periods)
• [Pedram] (brackets for emphasis)
• PedrΔm (using a delta symbol)
• P3dr4m (using numbers as substitutes)
• Pedr★m (adding a star)
• pEdRaM
• PeDrAm_
• PED ram

Additional variations worth considering:

• Reversed text: mardeP
• Doubled letters: Pedraamm
• Unicode characters: Ṕệđŕąṃ
• Keyboard patterns: |>3dr4m
• Phonetic spellings: Pedrahm
• Leading/trailing symbols: Pedram, xPedramx

We should consider executing systematic alias variation checks when the initial search returns no results to increase discovery chances.

Investigating Profile and Header Pictures on Facebook Profiles

A Facebook account typically has a personal profile picture and a header image. Both images should be inspected visually for any interesting leads or text written on them. We should also conduct a reverse image search to see where else these photos appear online, which could lead to discovering new accounts on other social networks.

The following key elements of the photos should be inspected:

1. Background locations – Landmarks that reveal geographical location.
2. Visible text – Any text written in the image, such as a phone number, email address or symbols.
3. Distinctive objects – Such as a famous building or a specific statue, monuments, or signs.
4. Recurring individuals – Individuals that appear in more than one photo on the profile. 
5. Metadata – Facebook removes metadata from uploaded media files; however, it is worth inspecting the photos anyway for any useful digital remnants.
6. Image upload dates

To execute a reverse image search, you can use the following search engines: 

• Google reverse search
• Bing visual search
• Tineye

If the image contains a human face, using a dedicated facial recognition tool or service could be more helpful. 

• Amazon Rekognition
• Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services Face API
• Google Cloud Vision API
• PimEyes
• Facecheck.ID
• Free Face Search 

To inspect images and videos for metadata, use the following tools:

• ExifTool by Phil Harvey
• IRFANVIEW graphic viewer
• Exif Pilot

Investigating the Facebook About Section

The "About" section of the individual Facebook profile contains many sub-sections that contain a plethora of information about each user.

Overview

Contains brief information about the user, such as study, work, and country or city of origin.

Work and Education

The Work section contains information about the companies where the Facebook user has worked. If the company has a Facebook page, it will display as a link here (see Figure 7).

Figure 7 - The work and education section contains information about the companies and schools/colleges that the Facebook user attended previously.

Places Visited

The "places visited" section contains the user check-ins, which provide insights into a user's location-tagged places on Facebook. This data represents selective location shares through manual check-ins, which might not comprehensively capture all visited locations.

OSINT gatherers can extract valuable intelligence by analyzing these check-ins chronologically, such as identifying location clusters and mapping potential routine patterns of the target user. 

The section might reveal restaurants, cafes, shops, and public venues that a user voluntarily marks, offering potential insights into personal movements, social networks, and lifestyle habits.

Contact and Basic Info

The "Contact and basic info" section contains important information about the Facebook account, such as:

• Gender
• Birth date
• Language
• Email address: Users can add one or more email addresses to their profile for contact and login purposes.
• Phone number: Users can also add a phone number, which can be used for account recovery, two-factor authentication, or contact purposes.
• Links to other social media profiles: Users can add links to their profiles on other platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, or personal websites.

Note that some or all of this information could be unavailable depending on privacy settings. However, when we have email, phone numbers, and links to other websites belonging to the user, such as their blog, we should also inspect them.

Inspecting Email Addresses

OSINT gatherers can use email aggregator services to trace where a specific email appears online and uncover connected emails tied to the same individual. These platforms compile email addresses from various sources, linking them to user profiles and cross-referencing alternate addresses. They can prove very useful in mapping digital identities.

The most prominent email aggregation services include ZoomInfo, and RocketReach. Each platform offers unique capabilities for discovering and verifying email contact information across different digital platforms.

Reverse Phone Number Search

If the target Facebook user has published their phone number publicly, then we should execute a reverse phone number search to see where it appears online. A reverse phone search allows OSINT gatherers to:

• Identify associated accounts – For instance, if the Facebook phone number is associated with an account on a gaming platform that contains more information about the user, then we can confirm their identity or reveal if it is fake on the Facebook profile.
• Cross-platform connections – If the Facebook phone number is used on other social networks (e.g., Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter), this enables OSINT gatherers to build a more comprehensive digital footprint of the target.
• Verify authenticity – By matching a phone number to a Facebook profile, we can determine if it is a fake account or belonging to a specific person, which adds credibility to our investigation. 

We should also search for the phone number in the following locations:

• Professional directories, such as chamber of commerce listings, Yellow pages (digital versions), Better Business Bureau and local business associations.
• Business registrations such as Edgar in USA and companies house in the UK.
• Public records databases such as vital and court records.

Family and Relationships

This section displays more information about the Facebook user, such as: 

• Relationship status – Single, in a relationship, married, engaged, or divorced.
• Partner/spouse information – If the person is in a relationship or married, Facebook may link to their partner's profile.
• Family members – Such as parents, siblings, or children. Facebook often links to their profiles if they have one. It is worth noting that some people mention their pet name in this section; such info may also help OSINT gatherers in their investigation. 
• Custom relationships – A user can also add custom relationships such as "cousin," "guardian," or "best friend."
• Anniversaries and important dates, such as marriage anniversaries or relationship milestones.

Of course, displaying all or part of this information depends on the privacy settings of the user's Facebook profile.

Details About

This section provides more information about the target Facebook profile, such as Name pronunciation, Other names and Favorite quotes.

Life Events

This section lists major events or milestones of the Facebook user. For example, it may contain the following information:

• Milestones: Major events like weddings, graduations, relocations, or career changes (such as starting or leaving a job).
• Dates and descriptions: Often include specific dates and details about the event.
• Photos or check-ins: Sometimes accompanied by media or location tags.

Analyzing Facebook Posts and Comments 

A user's Facebook posts and comments are considered a rich source of information for OSINT gatherers. By systematically analyzing user posts and comments, OSINT investigators can uncover valuable insights about an individual's activities, connections, and behavior. 

Content Timeline Analysis

This involves examining the chronological order of posts and comments to identify frequent patterns, major events, or changes in behavior. For example, a user posts about starting a new job in January 2025, then posts about relocating to a new city in March 2025 and attending a specific business conference in June 2025. This timeline helps us map their professional and personal movements during the first six months of 2025.

Detecting Periods of Inactivity

For example, analyzing a sudden drop in the number of posts for several months might indicate travel, illness, or a change in online behavior, such as leaving Facebook to concentrate after getting a new job.   

Tracking Interests Over Time

A user shifts from posting about home gardening in 2023 to sharing political content in 2025, indicating a change in priorities or affiliations. This allows OSINT gatherers to build a chronological profile of the individual, which helps understand their life events and behavioral shifts over time. 

Geolocation Extraction

This involves extracting location data (GPS coordinates) from posts, check-ins (see Figure 8), or tagged photos to determine where the individual has been or frequently visits. For example, we can conclude the following facts after inspecting some Facebook user check-ins:

• A user frequently checks in at a specific gym or supermarket in New York, suggesting they live or work nearby.
• A photo tagged at a restaurant in Paris during a particular date range places the user in that location at that time.
• A post says, "Sun is shining in Miami this week!" indicating their current or recent location.

Figure 8 - Location check-in in a Facebook post 

Interaction Habits Analysis   

This involves understanding how the user interacts with others on Facebook, such as their likes, comments, and shares, to identify their social circle and level of engagement, in addition to the nature of their relationships, which can be useful for mapping networks or identifying associates.

For example:

• Active participation in a private Facebook group for accounting professionals indicates their interest and expertise in the field
• A user frequently comments on an athlete's posts, such as The Undertaker, but receives no response, indicating a parasocial relationship.

Linguistic Behavior Assessment

The language used to write posts and comments can reveal much about the writer, such as their personality, cultural background, and professional expertise, which can be useful for profiling users. Linguistic analysis involves analyzing the language, tone, and style of posts and comments to understand the users' potential psychological traits and current state of mind when they post their content. For example:

• A user switching between English and Arabic in their posts, indicates bilingualism and cultural ties.
• Aggressive or confrontational comments may suggest a combative personality, while polite and formal language might indicate professionalism.
• Use of industry-specific terms (e.g., "API integration" or "pen testing") can reveal expertise or professional background in the Cybersecurity field.  

Sentiment Analysis of Text Content

OSINT gatherers can assess the emotional tone of posts and comments to determine whether the content is positive, negative, or neutral. This allows OSINT gatherers to gauge the user's emotional state, potential stressors, or mood changes, which can be relevant for psychological profiling or understanding motivations.

There are different Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered tools to execute sentiment analysis; here are the most prominent ones:

• Free Sentiment Analyzer – Sentiment analysis on English text
• Free AI Sentiment Analysis Generator – Upload a file or list of text to generate the sentiment.
• Nyckel text sentiment analyzer – A free classifier that uses AI to analyze text sentiment. 

When analyzing Facebook videos, you'll first need to extract the text before applying sentiment analysis tools. Below are some tools that can assist in this process:

• Flaxier - Video-to-text converter
• Veed - Transcribe videos to text
• Restream - Transcribe almost any video file into text

Identity Verification Techniques

Facebook does not impose strict verification on its users, so finding fake profiles is normal. We should consider doing the following verification techniques to verify information found on Facebook:

• Execute image reverse search across multiple engines (Google, Yandex, TinEye) for the images found on Facebook to see where they appear online 
• Metadata analysis of uploaded content. As we already said, Facebook removes metadata from uploaded content. However, some uploaded files, such as MS Word and PDF documents, or hyperlinks could still contain valuable information about the uploader.
• Pattern analysis of posting behavior and writing style. We can use automated tools to check if the written content on Facebook was written with the help of AI tool or contain plagiarized content that was published in other places before. Here are some tools to detect such content:
  • Turnitin
  • Duplichecker 
• You can also cross-reference various data to verify identity. For example, a profile claiming to be a local business owner can be verified by cross-referencing business registration data with Facebook profile creation dates and location-based posts.

Analyzing Facebook Images, Videos and URLs

Facebook users can post text, images, videos, and URLs on their Facebook profiles. Inspecting these contents can provide a wealth of information for OSINT gatherers such as uncovering hidden details, verifying authenticity, and assessing potential risks. 

Image Metadata Extraction

Image metadata, also known as EXIF data, contains details about the photo itself, such as the capturing device type, GPS coordination, and timestamps. Extracting this data can reveal important information about the image's origin and context.

Video Content Analysis

OSINT investigators can gain valuable information from videos. They can identify details like locations, individuals, and events by analyzing the visual and audio components. For example, a Facebook video shows a recognizable landmark, such as the Eiffel Tower, placing the user in Paris at the time of recording, while another video includes a group of people, some of whom are tagged or identifiable, which could reveal the user's social circle.

URL Reputation Checking

URLs shared on Facebook can lead to external websites, some of which may be malicious or scams. Checking the reputation of these URLs helps assess their credibility and potential risks. Here are some online services to check URL reputation: 

• Virus Total
• URLVoid
• Apivoid

Combining image metadata, video analysis, and URL checks creates a comprehensive picture of the inspected content's origin, context, and credibility.

Analyzing Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are valuable sources of information for OSINT gatherers. A Facebook group is a community similar to Reddit's subreddits, where users share the same interests or ideas.

Group Visibility

A Facebook group can be either public or private. Once a group is private, it cannot be changed into public. The major difference between the public and private groups is the visibility factor; we can summarize it in the following table:

Facebook Group Structure 

A Facebook group has a home page that contains links to other group areas (see Figure 9). Examine the group's description, rules, and pinned posts to understand its purpose (e.g., professional networking, hobby discussions, or activism). We can also analyze the frequency and type of posts to gauge activity levels and engagement.

Figure 9 - A Facebook Group home page 

Member Analysis

The "People" section reveals group composition. Admins and moderators are listed separately, enabling the identification of key influencers and decision-makers. Member interactions reveal subgroups, alliances, and hierarchies within the community (see Figure 10).

Figure 10 - View a Facebook Group Admin members

We can identify active members, admins, and moderators from the People section to map key influencers in that group. We can also cross-reference member profiles to uncover connections or shared affiliations.

Content Analysis

Clicking the "Discussion" link on the group home page will take you to group posts. You can examine posts, comments, and shared media to identify trends, topics, or recurring themes. We can also extract keywords, hashtags, or links to understand the group's focus and interests.

Geolocation and Demographics

Location indicators appear through:

• Language patterns
• Time zone patterns
• Local event discussions
• Regional references
• Cultural markers
• Location tags

Media

The media section requires examining the following:

• Image metadata
• Video content
• Document properties
• Upload patterns
• Sharing frequencies
• File naming conventions.

Files

The file section contains files uploaded by group members, such as MS Office and PDF documents files. Critical analysis points include:

• Document metadata such as creation dates, author names, software versions, system information, edit history and geographic markers

Sections

A group admin can also add new sections to their group, such as:

• Marketplace features
• Resource libraries
• Event calendars
• Job boards
• Learning materials
• Project collaboration

Advertisements on Facebook

Facebook's massive user base makes it a lucrative platform for scammers. Fake accounts and compromised profiles proliferate across the platform. Threat actors use these compromised accounts to spread misinformation, execute phishing attacks, and perform fraudulent schemes. For instance, Romance scams exploit emotional vulnerabilities, with perpetrators carefully cultivating trust before initiating financial requests. "Free" offers and unrealistic deals frequently conceal malware such as keyloggers, while clickbait content drives traffic to malicious websites to steal sensitive data such as baking information or to install malware. 

To inspect if an ad or offering is a scam on Facebook, follow these technical countermeasures: 

• Reverse image search – Use TinEye or Google Images to verify profile pictures
• Use email verification – To check if the email you are corresponding with was compromised in a previous data breach. For example, HaveIBeenPwned can reveal if associated emails appeared in data breaches
• Domain analysis – Use VirusTotal to check suspicious links
• URL scanner – Use services like URLScan.io for analyzing suspicious Facebook-related URLs

Overcoming The Challenges of Investigating on Facebook

Despite the simplified interface and its easy navigation, investigating Facebook presents several technical and methodological challenges because of the different privacy controls available on the platform to protect user's data. This requires careful consideration from OSINT gatherers to get the most out of Facebook.

Here are how OSINT gatherers can avoid the most pressing challenges of investigating on Facebook:

1. Privacy Controls and Access Limitations

The Facebook multi-layered privacy architecture creates major obstacles for OSINT analysts. For instance, common information like friends lists could be hidden when investigating a private profile. Still, OSINT investigators can often work around this through the following:

• Examining public interactions on mutual friends' posts
• Analyzing comments on public pages where the target user engages
• Monitoring public groups where the target user participates
• Reviewing tagged photos that may remain accessible despite private settings

For example, if we investigate "John Doe," who made their profile private or locked, we might find their comments on a local music band's public page. This could reveal connections and activities even if their profile is locked or private. 

2. Deactivated or Inactive Accounts

Inactive Facebook accounts require different investigative approaches. To investigate them you can do a historical post analysis through cached data:

• Identify the target Facebook content, such as a post or a Facebook profile
• Copy the content URL (I'm using Facebook on a Desktop web browser)
• Paste this URL on the Wayback Machine. Please note that Google and Bing search engines no longer offer cashed page service.
• If the post was publicly available, the internet archive could have stored a version of it (see Figure 11).

Figure 11 - View Historical Facebook content on the Internet archive service

An inactive account might not show any recent posts but still have a digital footprint through occasional likes or comments on community Facebook pages. Here are some other methods for uncovering a digital footprint:

• Examining profile picture timestamps
• Investigating engagement behaviors on others' content
• Cross-referencing activity periods with external platforms, such as user activity on Twitter (X) or the Reddit platform, if they already have an account there

3. Content Preservation and Recovery

While the WayBackMachine can be useful, you may not always find what you’re looking for. Once a post is deleted, it’s possible that it will disappear for good. To ensure you’re able to reference content that has been edited or deleted, OSINT gatherers should consider employing tools like WebPreserver to capture their data to their own device immediately when they find it, before it disappears.

For example, if investigating a group, regular snapshots of member lists can reveal pattern changes over time, even if members later leave or their profiles get deleted.

Defensible Evidence Collection from Facebook

As we’ve demonstrated, Facebook is a great source for collecting digital evidence to support various investigation needs. 

However, because Facebook evidence can disappear, OSINT investigators should follow specific procedures when collecting evidence to ensure the defensibility of their findings:

• Capture screenshots of relevant posts and comments, including timestamps and metadata, before they get deleted by the target user/s. 
  • NOTE: Screenshots may not be defensible in court unless they include proper metadata, context, hyperlinks and can be authenticated as genuine and  unaltered. To capture this data in an authenticated format, consider using a web evidence capture tool like WebPreserver or Social Discovery.
• Document the search process including the keywords used and the date/time when the evidence was captured to establish a transparent chain of custody.

WebPreserver for Facebook Investigations

WebPreserver is a social media and web capture tool that allows you to capture long Facebook posts, comment threads, or entire profiles and timelines in just a couple of clicks. The browser plug-in automatically expand threads and comments, and autoscrolls timelines, saving you time from manually expanding and capturing every post. Better yet – all evidence collected is complete with the appropriate metadata, digital signatures for authentication, and can be exported in native formatting, so you can present your evidence in context. 

Learn more about WebPreserver here. 

Facebook OSINT Investigations: Final Thoughts

With over 3.07 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers rich intelligence-gathering opportunities through groups, user profile analysis, and even advertisements. By examining Facebook's structure, analyzing user profiles, performing reverse username searches, searching Facebook Groups, using Google Dorks and sentiment analysis tools, and conducting image and metadata investigations, investigators can extract valuable information from the platform. 

Reading this guide has equipped you with sound strategies to explore user-generated content, analyze interactions, and unearth valuable intelligence while navigating the nuances and challenges that come with a vast data set of anonymized content.