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Research Outline

Prepared for Toy M. | Delivered November 18, 2019

Detective Desk- Data Source

Goals

To identify how the Australian skip tracing tool, Detective Desk, collects their data and what are the main sources they use.

Early Findings

Skip tracing is the process of collecting all possible information about an individual, who is in hiding. This process is mainly used by debt collectors, private investigators, recovery agents and journalists. One of the leading skip tracing tools in Australia is Detective Desk, which is a people search database with over 578.1 million records.

Data Sources For Detective Desk

  • In their privacy policy, Detective Desk mentions that they collect the data about Australian individuals through publicly available information on sources like social networks, search engines, law courts and investigators, phone book, postal service, and third party providers like utility providers, market research organizations and real estate agents.
  • Many of their data is also sourced from government agencies like Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), and Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
  • Detective Desk also uses the data provided by their customers while registration, placing an order, subscribing to their newsletter, etc.
  • Another skip tracing tool, Casper by Global Data, uses collects personal information from publicly available sources as well as from third party sources like data brokers, competitions, surveys, and online selling platforms.