Personal Information - Forensics

Forensics

In forensics, particularly the identification and prosecution of criminals, personally identifiable information is critical in establishing evidence in criminal procedure. Criminals may go to great trouble to avoid leaving any PII, such as:

• wearing masks, sunglasses, or clothing to obscure or completely hide distringuishing features, such as eye, skin, and hair colour, facial features, and personal marks such as tattoos, birthmarks, moles and scars.
• wearing gloves to conceal fingerprints, which themselves are PII. However, gloves can also leave prints that are just as unique as human fingerprints. After collecting glove prints, law enforcement can then match them to gloves that they have collected as evidence. In many jurisdictions the act of wearing gloves itself while committing a crime can be prosecuted as an inchoate offense.
• avoiding writing anything in their own handwriting.
• internet presence may also be masked, with methods such as using a proxy server to appear to be connecting from an IP address unassociated with oneself.