Social Media and Forensic Examinations

On a 1-10 scale, where one is for the least frequent phone or social media usage, I rate my phone usage at 7. The primary purpose of my usage is for communication and social media, especially for entertainment purposes. I often watch videos on YouTube and other social media platforms like Linkedin and Facebook rather than update social posts. Most of the time, my phone usage is also for communication, which means that I often message on the phone. I do not chiefly use social media; in fact, the communication apps for instant messaging are my number one priority.

The forensic examiner would be able to tell investigators about me that the metadata saved in my phone about images sent in the messages from the instant messaging applications, seen and unseen messages, attachments, and videos, and the recorded messages would be displayed (Nehar, 2020).

Further, the time and data of sent and received messages and the titles of group chats would be revealed to the digital forensic experts responsible for interpreting the device data. The deleted messages could be difficult to retrieve; however, the timing of the deleted messages plays an important part in their retrieval. If they were deleted in the near past, they could be easier to get back to. The same stands true for video calls and face time applications, for which the deleted status and canceled calls data could be obtained.

The information about web history, content search, Wi-Fi usage, and location tracing could be gained from applications such as Facebook and YouTube. I have entered keywords for search and used those apps by switching on my location. The forensic specialists could also know the duration of their usage and browser search through my phone usage patterns.

References

Nehar, M. (2020, June 6). An introduction to mobile device forensics (part two). Capsicum Group. https://capsicumgroup.com/an-introduction-to-mobile-device-forensics-part-two/