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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2808 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 13, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The unfortunate man's data is none of your business to snoop in. Don't be a dick.

I'm deathly curious if there's anything I could actually do with it if I wanted to

As I said this particular guy's data holds zero interest to me, ~90% odds this is some random local alcoholic who dropped the phone during some scuffle (a torn jacket hanging off a nearby bush did not fill me with confidence), I'm curious about the methods/tricks in general. Besides, if I didn't "snoop" the missed call notification I would've had literally zero clues towards the actual owner short of putting up posters or something, which definitely sounds like too much effort.

As far as I know, yes, there are forensic tools that could do some of what you want. You likely can't get them legally unless you're a LEO or something like that, but probably if you have access to the right darknet places you can get at least some of those (it's just code after all so anybody could use it). I have no personal experience though with this, just stuff that I read about in various places on the internet (which as we all know only contains true and verified information and can be always trusted). Most of the tools would rely on some bugs or logic holes so success of applying them to a particular phone would highly depend on the model, OS version, settings, etc.

There was a famous case where the FBI had trouble accessing San Bernadino shooter's iPhone (Apple can be better than random Android in this due to the fact that they can have unified model covering everything) but they were able to successfully break the protection anyway. The people who specialize in it likely have a lot more tricks in their bags, but those are not going to be revealed to a random dude, they a worth quite a lot of money and they won't do it for everybody. If you were an FBI officer, you probably would be able to get them to help you.

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