Using Public Search Engines to Investigate Potential Terrorists
Perhaps you are a security contractor who is employed at an airport and observed some suspicious behavior from a traveler or group of travelers. He or she may be taking pictures with his or her cell phone and may even be counting paces from entrances or exits. Such behavior may be part of some pre-event surveillance where a loner or group are planning to place a bomb and calculating distances as well as passenger traffic flows.
Your standard operating procedures may be to place a call to a dispatcher, request assistance, and engage the subject in conversation. Another member of your private contractor team may arrive and ask for the person's name and home address. Since many new hand held devices such as the Blackberry Bold have Internet capability, you may use a search engine to look up the person in question and see where they live or if they belong to any social networking sites or blogs that discuss violence and terrorism.
