Hackers Find Missing People For Fun

Children — July 16, 2024 · 110 Comments

Trace Labs is a new project where hackers compete to find missing people. Subscribe:

It all started when Rob Sell, a professional search and rescue tracker who also worked in computer security, became frustrated at how nobody was looking for many of the thousands of missing people. He decided to found Trace Labs, a project which uses crowdsourcing to enlist the efforts of hackers worldwide to find them. They select missing persons cases and then award hackers points for finding information on the missing people, creating a computer forensics competition for a cause. One great opportunity is going to hacking conferences like BSIDES and DEFCON and holding events where hackers there try their hand at finding the whereabouts of missing people. It's part of a new movement towards OSINT, or Open Source Intelligence. The primary tool is searching online and using the dark web for digital fingerprints – pictures, activity, or other digital fingerprints. When successful, hackers can find information the families and law enforcement have never had before – helping their quest to track down the person, or even finding them directly.

This is the first video in Freethink’s new series Digital Detectives. In it, we meet Nathalie St-Louis, a French Canadian woman whose father disappeared 30 years ago. She heard about Trace Labs and is hoping they can provide her information or hope on his whereabouts. We then follow Rob Sell as he sets up shop at a hacking conference and recruits a team of hackers to trace Nathalie’s father and other cold cases.

What do you think? Are these amateur sleuths helping a great cause or playing a silly true crime game? Let us know what you think in the comments!

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110 Comments

    1. It would be nice if it had a bounty system, rather then bringing people in, it would be to gain intelligence for these situations and call them seekers.

    2. It’s dangerous, of course, and although the road to Hell can be paved with good intentions, it’s better to incentivize hackers to aid in such a cause than to do nothing at all with them and these cases.

    4. The information is out there, and so long as a person isn’t having their basic rights infringed upon I can support exploiting that information.
      Some people are using OSINT to find every military base for every government in the world and label the departments in those facilities accordingly.
      I think that’s really cool.

    2. Were talking about the media execs, jeffery epsteins buddies, all regulars to these sites. You think they will praise hackers for disrupting their afternoon fap?

    3. @@B.White70 Who? The law enforcement or the group of people? If you’re talking about the group, yes, actively. They have a slack where any member can go and be involved in finding missing people, if you’re talking about the law enforcement, probably somewhat looking, just not to the full potential due to everything else.

    5. @@demonman1234 and no they pretty much don’t. Through my experiences in the matter. A small group is trying. But, the majority have little to no interest in it. Unless, they personally relate, directly or indirectly involved looking to rise through the ranks or observant during the course of an investigation or stop.
      I like this idea but there’s obvious risks involved in it as well.
      I hope to be able to look into them further sometime in the future…
      Ty for asking and not assuming b. Refreshing in today’s climate…
      Peace onto you and yours b.

  11. Cops: “finding your daughter seems to be getting harder and harder everyday. I’m sorry.”

    Hackers: “she posted to her Instagram story 2 mins ago. Here’s the location. Have a good day”

  12. This is great for the genuinely missing person, but very scary in that there are those who will abuse the system claiming they are seeking a missing person. When in reality they are stalking that person, possibly with the intent to do harm.

    2. @Taco Bell  Not all situations would be suspicious just because they found someone who wasn’t really “missing”.
      There are many people who are under legal protection from former abusive ex’s, mentally unstable stalkers, or witness protection situations. Some people may have voluntarily abandoned their former life for new life elsewhere. Those are not suspicious situations, and the team could be helping a dangerous person find someone who has justified reasons for having gone “missing”.

    3. True, but if I heard correctly the founder said they give the info to law enforcement/proper authorities, not directly to the person looking for someone. Even that probably isn’t fullproof, but it does add a layer of safety to the whole concept.

    4. @@stardancer119 Key words, that doesn’t make it full proof. Just because there isn’t”t physical abuse doesn’t mean there wasn’t abuse, threats, or destruction involved. Or sometimes the person they need refuge from is a member of law enforcement. Or what about the person who just plain chose to leave. Not ideal for any situation but still a personal choice they made, and probably not wanting future contact. Anyone could make a legal case for why this company needs to find the missing individual, but who’s checking the credibility of cases they pursue?

    5. @@krystalMtn if they give it to law enforcement and the person is over the age of 18, all they need to say to the police is “no, I left on purpose and I don’t want to talk to them” and that’s generally that. It gets more complicated when it comes to minors though, unfortunately.

  13. I’m glad to see that people with this much skill are using it to do good in the world, when a lot of them could easily do a lot of evil for their own gain.

    These are good people right here.

    2. @@davidniquot6423 You try finding a missing person that even the government couldn’t find, using advanced hacking and information gathering skills. Good luck.

    3. @@davidniquot6423he’s been gone since 1988 or something. Of course they won’t find clued, especially because if the lack of computers. these skills may help find other missing people. You can’t be saying anything if you aren’t contributing.

  15. As someone who works in the cyber security field professionally, this is the kind of person we really all aspire to be. Not just protecting large corporations, but helping innocent people as well.

    5. Hello there, I am thinking to start learning cybersecurity. I’m a noob but I’d like to know some things before getting into it. Would you mind helping me out? Thanks in advance!

  16. Its an interesting thing to realize, that when you’re out in public and you’re passing by hundreds of people walking through stores and at the park or wherever, some of those people are probably a missing person. But they’re only a missing person to those who once knew them, to us they are just another random face in the crowd. You don’t really ever think about how the guy standing in line in front of you might be somebody’s child that missing years ago and about how badly someone wants to see them again but maybe never will.

    4. There was a study set up in place like what you mentioned. A child was put in front of a supermarket to hand out missing person flyers. People picked up the flyers and walked off. It took like three hours for someone to realize the person on the flyer was the child handing flyers out.

    5. ​@@OutWestRedDirt Here’s a fun statistic: out of Finland’s 2100 schools only 65 of them are private. Finland has the best education system in the world.

  20. This is RE my husband, Tim Welch we are separated. He is missing. It’s over 2 months now. Police are not helping. It’s a horrible situation, he was living on property in a 5th wheel. The lady who allowed him to move there, has a convict son. The son was out of prison, on that property on Friday and Tim went missing the next Monday.
    I don’t see that I can share his Missing poster.
    He was broadcasted on Bakersfield CA news days ago. The police finally posted him as officially missing in under 2 hours before the broadcast. They let that guy run when he had stalled opening a U-Haul on the land, that he’d said had Tim’s belongings. The cops did nothing when he ran. The cops confirmed there was another murder on that property. I’m told the suspect had told an autistic relative he would kill the relative’s mother, if he didn’t tell police he did the murder. He (autistic relative not understanding) plead guilty. He hung himself in prison.
    The police knew the name of the guy we hear was bragging that he killed Tim and knew his address, said that he’s known for crime and theft.
    We’ve done 2 extensive grid searches.
    His truck was being driven by the suspect and he also moved into the rv. It’s in my name, so I went with others and retrieved it. We need help. His mother has paid someone with no detective background or real resources, $1500 a week for nearly 2 months. He is still missing.
    This is so sad because we have no help from Kern County Sheriff’s Department at all. He was living between Mojave and Rosamond, CA.
    Note: his truck was found trashed, the police had it impounded into a regular impound yard, not held as crime evidence.

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