Skip-tracers and private investigators who are instrumental in vehicle searches when the contract goes into default have more information than ever at their fingertips. But a new survey from TransUnion TLOxp found the top priorities for these industry players include privacy regulations and big-data management.

The survey — which included more than 1,600 private investigators across the country — indicated that nearly six in 10 private investigators agree or strongly agree that the volume of data available today is unmanageable without advanced data aggregation tools.

Although private investigators find big data unmanageable without the proper tools, 65 percent of respondents believe the increased use of big data will have a positive or very positive impact on the industry during the next five years. Private investigators sort through massive amounts of data — such as current and past addresses, liens, judgments and bankruptcies, phone numbers, assets and more — to conduct deep investigations.

Using big data tools, TransUnion executive vice president Tim Martin insisted investigators, collectors and skip-tracers can pull comprehensive or customized reports for each case, identify links and close cases faster and more efficiently.

“Private investigators rely on big data to discover and analyze information that is essential to their investigations,” Martin said. “Our private investigator survey found that this group recognizes the importance of big data, and are optimistic about how tools such as TLOxp can assist in managing and finding insights from the millions of records that exist today.”

In addition to big data management, survey respondents ranked skip-tracing tools as highly important. Nearly five in 10 private investigators ranked these tools as their top business investment, and would select skip-tracing if they could only purchase one tool for a new private investigation business.

“In today’s world, information alone is not enough. Private investigators need advanced linking of structured and unstructured data to connect the dots and solve their cases,” Martin said.

“Skip-tracing and big-data management tools offer a reliable, accurate and quick way to locate people,” he continued. “TransUnion's TLOxp services provide each private investigator with customized searches to meet his or her unique needs, ultimately helping them finish investigations faster.”

The survey also found private investigators are concerned about the impact of new privacy laws and regulations. More than 91 percent of survey respondents believe new privacy laws and regulations will have a very negative impact on the industry.

Despite privacy concerns and the increase in data breaches and identity theft, the TransUnion survey uncovered that only three in 10 private investigators offer identity theft services to their clients.

“As companies and consumers experience the impact of data breaches, identity theft may see a larger presence in private investigators' portfolios in 2015,” Martin said.

Martin added that TransUnion’s TLOxp for licensed investigators leverages the largest, most powerful online database of public and proprietary records available providing information about people, businesses, assets and locations.

Private investigators, detectives, bail agents and process servers can use TLOxp to conduct deep investigations to find missing persons, locate and recover debt and find bail fugitives faster than ever before.

More information about TLOxp can be found at www.tlo.com.