A New Era: The Evolution of Skip Tracing in the Digital Age

Before the smartphone connected us like never before, many tasks were as laborious as they were time-consuming. One of the best examples of that is skip tracing. In the “old days,” a trained professional would need to pour over public records, do endless amounts of legwork, and often rely on old-fashioned luck to locate the people they were looking for.

From a 1,000-foot view, things don’t look that different today. A skip tracer will still pour over publicly available records to uncover as many leads as possible in their quest to get things done. It’s just that what the “legwork” looks like has dramatically changed. There is less of a reliance on luck than ever because pros now have the full might of modern technology by their side.

It might take a skip tracing professional a similar amount of time to locate someone, but now they’re not scouring through phone books or knocking on doors to do it. Today’s skip tracers can rely on one of the most potent digital arsenals ever created. This is true for various reasons, all of which are worth a closer look.

Social Media, Search Engines, and More

Think, for a moment, about the sheer volume of information that you put online about yourself when you sign up for a social media account.

Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and other sites always ask you for your name, age, and other identifying information. Plus, you likely provide more than you need – from information about where you go to school, your coworkers, what local events you attend, and more.

This type of data has been mined for years in various industries. Political candidates use it in the run-up to an election to know who to target to turn out the vote. Businesses use it to advertise more effectively, ensuring they can get the right message in front of the right person at the right time.

Skip tracers use it, too. The more information you have to draw from when searching for a person online, the more likely you can tell where they are. At the very least, you can determine some of their known associates, such as friends or family members. If you’re a skip tracer trying to help a business locate someone who has tried to avoid paying a debt, sometimes that is all you need to start the process.

It can also be invaluable in other ways, too. Skip tracing in real estate is regularly used by industry professionals to locate people who may be interested in selling their homes but who haven’t put them on the market yet. This can be a great way to swoop in on an excellent investment opportunity before any of your competitors can.

The same is true of search engines. Try typing your name into Google – you’d be stunned by how much information comes up. All this, coupled with specialized databases, offers a treasure trove of information that makes even the hardest individuals easy (or at least easier) to find.

The Sophistication of Modern-Day Algorithms

Once you consider the sheer volume of data that most skip tracers now have to work with, the next most obvious question becomes, “How do you even know where to begin?”

It’s true. According to one recent study, about 402 million new terabytes of data are created daily. Not all of that data is based on solid, factual insight – far from it. If a regular skip tracing professional only had their own skill to work with, they wouldn’t get through even a fraction of it all on a single case. Not only that, but they wouldn’t have a way to quickly separate the high and low-quality data to find that which is most relevant.

Thankfully, technology can help them out in that area, too. Sophisticated algorithms are regularly employed to sift through this data in a fraction of the time it would take even a team of humans to do the same. Also, once properly trained, these algorithms are great at uncovering hidden connections and digital footprints that may have otherwise gone undiscovered.

This frees up the invaluable time of a skip tracing professional so that they can focus on more important matters. Namely, it gives them time to chase down those high-quality leads, investigate those connections, and find the people they set out to locate in the first place. Not only is it a far more efficient way to operate than ever before, but it’s also a much more accurate one.

A Brave New World

Overall, skip tracing has evolved tremendously over the years as modern technology has done the same. Formerly, someone would need to visit a local municipal building to look up public records databases. Now, that same information can be found online in a matter of seconds. Skip tracing has become not only faster, but far more accurate as well.

However, the most crucial shift technology has brought with it is that skip tracing is far less reliant on chance encounters. Sure, luck still plays a role in what skip-tracing professionals do to a certain degree. If you’re trying to piece together where someone might be based on their social media activity, you have to get lucky and hope they don’t turn off geolocation services when they post a photo.

However, these situations are far less common than in the past. If the success of a skip-tracing endeavor depends on access to quality data, the good news is that we now have more of it to draw from than ever. Considering how far the profession has come in the last decade, it’s fascinating to think about what emerging technologies like AR, VR, and even AI have in store for us all.