And even then there are ways to improve the searches. A person's age will often make a big difference on where to start. For instance kids, Navarro emphasized, are migrating away from Facebook to platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Older suspects are still hanging out on Facebook and even MySpace. Law enforcement searches on the right platforms can reap many nuggets of information.

Navarro echoed Altschuler's comments on the sheer amount of information that's out there, if you know where to look.

"Social media is a valuable tool because you are able to see the activities of a target in his comfortable stage," one respondent to the described. "Targets brag and post illicit valuable information in reference to travel, hobbies, places visited, functions, appointments, circle of friends, family members, relationships, actions, etc."

This is not exactly a new phenomenon. When he was a prosecutor, Altschuler said he could not count the number of times he would be listening to a wiretap tape and a suspect would say something like "we'd better not talk about this, there could be a wiretap"... and then promptly continue to discuss the criminal activity on the same call.