Significant Undercover: How to Become a Social Media Sleuth

How do you catch a cheating ex over a thousand miles away? Ask Gabriela Sandoval, a junior international relations major who did it using a fake Snapchat account, a made-up name and her old roommate’s face.

“I just had a gut feeling he was cheating on me … I confronted him about [it] and he was like, ‘Fuck, you’re crazy’,” Sandoval recalled.

Social media has made it possible for anyone to be an internet detective. While this is a win for people getting lied to, cheated on, etcetera–there are serious privacy concerns for everyone walking around with smartphones and secrets.

All you need is someone’s name and one other basic identifier about them — like a hometown, college, job or sports team. A quick internet search will likely return their home address, phone number, social media accounts and much more.

Sandoval waited until her now ex-boyfriend went to a party at his college. Back at MC, Sandoval created the fake snapchat account under the pseudonym ‘Diane’ and snapped her ex using her roommate’s face. Claiming to be a girl he had met out the night before, ‘Diane’ quickly made plans to meet up with Sandoval’s ex the following Friday.

“They [‘Diane’ and Sandoval’s ex] talked for the week… then I texted him, and was like ‘Hey on Friday, let’s talk at 6 p.m.’,” Sando-

“I looked up the campus map and found the furthest campus dorm from him. I looked up [the names of his college’s] dorms and stuff. I knew how many floors there were in that building. I made him walk to the ninth floor and knock on a random door,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval then video-called her ex on ‘Diane’s’ account, this time showing her own face and revealing to her ex that he’d been set up.

Relaxed private settings on features like Snapmaps, “activity status” on Instagram or public Venmo transactions may reveal your physical location, the last time you picked up your phone or whose Uber you hopped in last night. Phone numbers or emails can be typed into third party apps without a password and tell even an amateur sleuth whether or not that person has an active account. For example, sites like Tinder and OnlyFans will say “reset password” if the information belongs to an account versus “account does not exist.”

What seems like a cool way to connect with friends incidentally also gives anyone the ability to gather data from all your profiles and your friend’s to create a much bigger picture. Suddenly, hundreds or thousands of your social media “friends” can find out where you went last night, who you were with or if you’re ignoring their text.

Not every story of internet stalking is as shocking as Sandoval’s, but it demonstrates how easy it is to find out very intimate information about someone.

by ROSALIA CEFALU layout by JOCELYN VISNOV art by KELLY KENNEDY

forgot about it. A couple days later, we’re hanging out again. He grabbed my phone [to] look something up and the first thing on my Safari was his house,” Woods said.

After sharing their sleuthing scenarios, Sandoval and Woods both agreed that routine internet stalking has become increasingly normal in our daily lives.

“I think if people aren’t admitting that they’re doing it, they’re lying,” Woods said. “I think everyone does it to some extent.”

So what can you do to privatize things you may not want public?

Patricia Sheridan, J.D., a licensed attorney and Manhattan College professor who teaches a class on data privacy offered her advice on how to reduce one’s digital footprint, which she describes as having a “privacy-first” mindset when it comes to having personal information online.

“Whenever you visit a website or download an app and see the prompt to manage cookie preferences, take the time to toggle off the tracking instead of simply clicking accept all. If a pop-up asks for permission to track, you say no,” Sheridan advised.

‘Diane’ was real, Sandoval’s ex quickly came up with an excuse to cancel his call with her before heading off to meet

Anna Woods, a senior political science major, lightheartedly shared the story of how her current boyfriend caught her sleuthing information about him online, before they were officially dating.

“I guess I don’t remember specifically, but he must have told me his address, but I guess I remembered it. So then, of course, I went on Zillow to look at his house and I completely

“It’s also a good idea to get in the habit of checking and adjusting the privacy settings for the online accounts you regularly use,” she wrote. “In many cases, the user can adjust the default settings to affirmatively opt out of the collection and sharing of certain types of personal information. I would also suggest periodically conducting a ‘privacy check’ on your phone to determine which apps are accessing your location, and adjust the location sharing for each app to the minimum necessary.”

With how powerful social media has become, there is no fool-proof way of securing your online information. But by exercising caution and keeping Sheridan’s “privacy first” mindset, you can lighten up the trail of information you leave behind throughout your digital days.