What NearbySpy is (marketplace + operations)

NearbySpy is two products in one platform: a public marketplace where Clients find vetted private investigators, and a private operations workspace where Investigators run their cases end to end. You can use one side without the other, but most accounts touch both.

The marketplace side

The marketplace is the public-facing directory. Clients search by location, specialty, credentials, and rating to find a Private Investigator near them. Each Investigator gets a public profile with a license badge, response time, reviews from booked Clients, and a way to start a conversation. PIs can claim an existing imported listing or create a new one from scratch.

Search results are ranked by relevance, location coverage, profile completeness, and Featured placement where applicable. Every Client review must come from a real, booked Case, so the ratings you see reflect actual work, not anonymous spam. See How Investigator search and filters work for details on ranking, and How reviews work on profiles and in the dashboard for the review rules.

The operations side

Once a Client and Investigator agree to work together, the Investigator opens a Case inside their dashboard. A Case is the container for everything related to that engagement: the Operations log, Evidence, Subjects (also called Persons of Interest), Notes, the Calendar, Reports, Messages, video calls, and the Client portal.

An Operation is the smallest unit of work in a Case. A surveillance shift, a research task, a field interview, or a document review are all Operations. Each one can be assigned to an Operator, contain Evidence files, hold comments, and be made visible (or kept hidden) to the Client. See Operation types and statuses for the supported types and the lifecycle of an Operation.

Who uses NearbySpy

• Investigators: solo PIs and small agencies who want to consolidate fragmented tools (file storage, scheduling, billing, e-sign, client portals) into one workspace.
• Clients: individuals, law firms, corporations, and insurers who need to find a vetted PI quickly and watch a Case progress without endless email threads.

Why we built it this way

Investigative work is legally sensitive. Cases often end up in court. NearbySpy treats every Case like it might be subpoenaed: Evidence is hashed on upload using SHA-256, audit trails are append-only, role-based access control is enforced at the database layer, and Clients only ever see what an Investigator has explicitly shared with them. One Case never bleeds into another.

Where to go next

• Not sure which account type to pick? Read Choosing between a Client account and an Investigator account.
• Ready to sign up? Read How to sign up and sign in.
• Already an Investigator? Read Completing Investigator onboarding.