Using a combination of “cyber sleuthing, old-school gumshoe reporting and persistent stalking,” the folks at Wired were able to verify the identity of the guy that found the prototype iPhone at a bar an eventually sold it to Gizmodo. Not only is it a decent case study on how to find those who do not wish to be found, but it also highlights the fact that you really can’t hide from anyone these days. Once you start sharing your identity online and connecting with others, you have already failed at fading into the background when the stuff hits the fan.
The first stop in locating one Brian Hogan, the infamous iphone finder, was Facebook. As the iPhone story broke on Gizmodo, an intern at Wired happened to be paying attention to relevant sources on Facebook and noticed a comment by Hogan that seemed suspicious. They took a screenshot for later as the single word comment wasn’t enough to make a move at the time.
About a week after the Gizmodo story broke, Hogan had deleted his Facebook account and attempted to disappear from the Internet. This was a signal to Wired that he was probably involved and should be investigated. As they say, a hit dog will holler. Wired was already aware that the iphone finder had been identified by police, but his identity was kept secret.
Referring back to the Facebook screenshot, Wired figured out that several of the other users commenting on the Gizmodo story along with Hogan happened to have attended Santa Barbara City College. They friended about 25 of these potential connections to Hogan. Working on the assumption that Hogan had also attended this college and that he had subsequently moved to Redwood City where the phone was found, Wired.com’s Kevin Poulsen searched a people-finder website. He found a Brian J. Hogan who just so happened to live a mile away from Gourmet Haus Staudt, the bar where the phone was found.
A visit to the address combined with a couple of semi-lucky Google searches and the excessive friending on Facebook eventually led to Wired being contacted by Hogan’s lawyer. This was the confirmation they needed, but they still squeezed the lawyer for as much information as they could before publishing. Moral of the story is, you can’t hide from a tenacious journalist who knows how to use Google and social media.