Vivian Song has a well written piece in the Toronto Sun that spotlights the security and privacy concerns that social networkers face on a daily basis. It mentions Facebook phishing schemes and online identity theft and also looks at how social media terms of service are often at odds with notions of brick and mortar privacy. Reputation.com gets covered as an industry leader.
Companies such as Reputation.com will scour the Internet and remove unflattering material that could sully their client’s online reputation. For example, when a grad student discovered a picture of her half-naked body posted by a bitter ex-boyfriend, she enlisted Reputation.com’s help. The company’s strategy is surprisingly simple: They ask the site host politely. They’re not a legal team, says founder Michael Fertik, but they’ve seldom had to resort to legal methods in the 10,000 removal requests made so far.
Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik is also quoted in the piece:
“People are alive to the fact that the web is not their enemy,” Fertik said from California. “It’s a fact of life and people want to have as much control over it as possible.”
The Toronto paper looks specifically at how Facebook’s terms of service impact Canadian privacy laws and also delineates how social networking is fundamentally altering how we percieve ourselves online and off. As more people connect with one another online, managing and monitoring one’s reputation will be critical.
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