How to find someone's social media profiles

01Legal & ethical ground rules

Looking at what someone has chosen to share publicly is fine for reasons like verifying a business contact, checking a marketplace seller or reconnecting with someone. It is not fine to stalk, harass, or use the results to make decisions about employment, credit, housing or insurance where laws such as the FCRA apply.

Do not create fake accounts, guess passwords or ask a third party to get access to private profiles. If an account is private, respect that.

• Have a clear, legitimate reason.
• Stick to public pages and search results.
• Don't contact or follow someone just because you found them.

02Search by full name

Start with the person's full name in quotes plus one detail you know: "Ayesha Raza" Lahore, or "Ayesha Raza" designer. Search engines index public profiles from LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and GitHub, so these searches often surface several accounts at once.

Then search inside each platform. LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram all have people search; filter by location, school or company to narrow common names.

1. 1
   Name in quotes + location"First Last" City
2. 2
   Name + employer or school"First Last" Company
3. 3
   Name + platform"First Last" site:linkedin.com/in

03Search by username across sites

Many people reuse the same handle everywhere. Once you have one confirmed username, search it on its own and on each platform: instagram.com/handle, x.com/handle, github.com/handle, tiktok.com/@handle.

Check bios too: people often link their other accounts or a personal website, which is the quickest way to connect the dots.

If you only have an email address, search it in quotes. Some people list it publicly on a site or profile.

04Use photos & bios to confirm

Two accounts with the same name are not necessarily the same person. Confirm with at least two independent matching details: profile photo, location, employer, school, mutual connections or a link between the accounts.

Be especially careful with common names and with impersonation accounts, which copy real photos. Look at account age, activity and who interacts with it.

05Common mistakes

Most wrong results come from moving too fast.

• Trusting a single match on name alone.
• Ignoring dates: an old profile may not reflect someone's current job or city.
• Treating people-search sites' paid reports as verified facts.
• Forgetting that people change usernames and names over time.

06Find profiles with Hazana

Hazana's free lookup searches public sources for a name and groups the likely matches with a confidence score and the links it found, so you can confirm the right person quickly. Looking for a brand or @handle instead of a person? Use Social Profiles.

Free tools for this guide

Frequently asked questions