Course purpose
This course explains how social-media platforms affect forensic investigations by creating fast-moving sources of leads, admissions, relationships, transactions, location clues and public reaction while also introducing impersonation, manipulated media, privacy, safety and preservation risks. It gives the learner a disciplined workflow for scoping lawful collection, documenting provenance, preserving volatile content, testing account and media authenticity, linking online indicators to financial records and reporting conclusions with calibrated confidence. Public visibility does not remove the need for authority, data minimisation, ethical judgement or legal advice.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
1. Plan an authorized, proportionate and safe social-media collection that defines platforms, accounts, periods, criteria and legal dependencies.
2. Preserve and verify profiles, posts, messages, media and relationships using reproducible capture, provenance and corroboration controls.
3. Integrate online and financial evidence into timelines and network analysis while reporting uncertainty, privacy limits and alternative explanations.
Forensic CPD
