Last week on Meet the Reputation.com Team, we introduced you to Charlie Russ, one of Reputation.com’s hard-working and hilarious software engineers. Today, we’re saying hello to Chris Macomber, who proudly puts his years of experience to use in the field of product management. Learn more about Chris below.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Chris Macomber and I’m a Senior Product Manager here at Reputation.com. My role at RD is to ensure we are building the best possible product features and experience for our customers.  Currently, I am working on MyReputation, MyEdge, and our first free product, Your Web Score.

What did you do prior to joining Reputation.com?

Previously, I was a Product Manager at Intuit where I worked on QuickBooks Online, their flagship online financial management service, and Intuit Community, a community of small business owners helping each other grow their business.  Before that I was getting my MBA at MIT Sloan.  Before that I was an Engineering Manager at Cisco responsible for their e-learning platform, and a Manager at Sapient, an internet consulting firm.  I got my Computer Science degree at Stanford and grew up in Las Vegas.

What attracted you to Reputation.com?

I joined RD because more and more people are concerned about how they or their loved ones look online.  I believe RD has the knowledge and skills to best help out our customers, so they don’t have to worry anymore.

Why do you think it’s important for people to manage their reputations online?

There are two primary trends that are colliding.  First, the Internet is quickly becoming the primary source to find information about a person.  It could be a company interviewing you, a new girlfriend checking you out, or potential customers evaluating your trustworthiness.  Second, it is increasingly commonplace to share more and more about yourself online, even if you don’t know you’re doing it.  In this case, unfortunately, ignorance is not bliss.  You need to know how people see you online and take control of your online presence.

When you’re not helping individuals control and protect their good names online, what do you like to do in your spare time?

I play basketball as often as possible, ski, and teach my toddler important things like sarcasm, not hitting the cat, and of course proper online reputation management.

What’s your all-time favorite website?

My favorite social site may be non-intuitive, but I love using Google Reader to help point out market trends and new developments to my friends and colleagues. It’s a quick and easy way to show what you care about without having to write a lot of content yourself!

Happy Friday Reputation.com readers! In today’s “Reputation Management, Internet Privacy, and Social Media Quick Hits,” we talk about hackers, Twitter death hoaxes, and botched social media marketing. Check it out.

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Would You Share Your Credit Card Purchases With the World?

We already know people are willing to share pretty much all of their activity during the day through Twitter, but are they willing to share everything that they purchase too? The folks at Blippy, one of the web’s latest start-ups, are hoping that the answer is yes.

Blippy, which allows users to share their credit card purchases with selected friends, has been talked about in tech circles for a while now but seems to finally be catching mainstream press. In this article from the Associated Press, Rachel Metz discusses how Blippy works, why some users find it useful, and whether or not it’s ready for mainstream success.

Gordon Lightfoot is Not Dead

Don’t worry folk music fans, Gordon Lightfoot is not dead. After an erroneous media report of the singer’s death hit the web, the story took off on Twitter. Of course, the story was retracted within 30 minutes, but that’s like three days in Internet time. What’s interesting about this story is that, unlike other celebrity death hoaxes, this one didn’t actually start on Twitter. Nevertheless, it was Twitter that allowed the story to spread, which goes to show you that you shouldn’t believe every tweet you read.

Denny’s Menus Direct Diners to Taiwanese Man’s Twitter Account

In a fairly egregious social media mistake, the popular restaurant chain Denny’s printed the wrong Twitter URL for their company on thousands of menus nationwide. The Twitter URL in question, http://twitter.com/dennys, actually directs to a Taiwanese man named Dennys Hsieh. While it is admirable that Denny’s has taken the leap into social media, this mistake offers an important lesson for all companies seeking to use the web to build their brands. If you’re going to be a part of Web 2.0, you have to have a plan.

Amateur Cybercriminals Responsible for Hacking 68,000 User Name and Password Pairs

It’s not just professional cybercriminals that are after your private information. As this USA Today article explains, even starter cyberthieves can get in on the attacks. According to the Don Jackson, a researcher at the security firm, SecureWorks, approximately 68,000 user name and password pairs that were stolen from over 2,400 organizations were hacked by amateurs using outdated free hacking tools.

New Facebook Controls Help Users Censor Posts from Third-Party Apps

In its efforts to deliver additional control over privacy, Facebook has added new controls that allow users to control which of their friends see posts generated by third-party applications. The inability to censor third-party applications from specific users was one of the chief complaints surrounding Facebook’s privacy overhaul at the end of last year.

One of the more humorous (and tame) interactions from Chatroulette.

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With the phenomenal growth of social media over the last half-decade, one might think that we’ve finally learned to tame the web. Between Facebook, Twitter, and the new kid on the block Google Buzz, it is easier than ever to share information with friends and family in an organized fashion. Even the negative aspects of social media interaction (slander, identity theft, etc.) can at least be prepared for through effective reputation monitoring and personal branding.

Of course, when you’re dealing with something as incredibly dynamic as the Internet, there is no such thing as control. Using a popular analogy, if the web is the Wild Wild West, then all we’ve down is put on a tin star and tidy up town. By and large, the real dangerous outlaws are still out there. Case in point, the Internet’s latest fad: Chatroulette.com.

In simplest terms, Chatroulette is a giant, international, and totally anonymous peer-to-peer web chat network. Founded by a 17-year old Russian student, Chatroulette functions by turning on your computer’s web cam and randomly syncing you up with users from all around the world. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider this. In the past two weeks, Chatroulette has been featured in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Mashable, Time Magazine, and countless other respected publications.

So, what is it that has earned the website so much attention? Prurience, plain and simple.

You see, while idealists might think that Chatroulette is the perfect place to bridge cultural gaps and foster dynamic new ideas through the transformative power of anonymous communication, the reality is that the website is filled with lewdness, vulgarity, and all kinds of disturbing imagery. That’s not to say that users can’t find valuable conversation (Sam Anderson talked about some of his successful Chatroulette experiences in the New York Magazine article), but you have to wade through a sea of disinterested teenagers, male genitalia, and bizarre shock images to get to it.

In retrospect, Chatroulette is the logical extension of our long-held desire for anonymous interaction online. What began in the early 1990′s with chat rooms on AOL and Prodigy has evolved over time to become Chatroulette. The same principles apply: two strangers, one anonymous link. The difference now is the element of chance. There is no control over what you might see, and that seems to be what’s driving fascination with the site. That’s also the reason why parents should keep their kids far, far away from it.

As more and more people begin trying out Chatroulette, I wouldn’t be surprised if the site were forced to implement some heavier restrictions. As it stands, there is really no way to protect users, especially children, from seeing things that they should definitely not be seeing without the proper context. Like I said though, that’s why the site has garnered so much press, and also why it will probably fade once more restrictions are put in place.

What do you think? Would you try Chatroulette? (Be advised, we don’t recommend it.)

Here at Reputation.com, we’ve previously talked about Foursquare and how the location-based application tracks where you are, where you’ve been, and when, allowing users to earn product and service discounts in the process. Now a new site called Please Rob Me brings that same technology a little closer to home and in the process points out the dangers of location-based technology.

The idea is based on the same concept as that of Foursquare and Google Buzz, however instead of telling the online world where you are, it tells people where you’re not – namely at home. Using data picked up from Foursquare and Twitter, PleaseRobMe.com simply plasters your last location and when you checked into your Foursquare or Twitter account on a livestream on the site (i.e. @zachscott left home and checked in 10 minutes ago: I’m at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers [6513 W. Park Blvd, Midway, Plano]).

PleaseRobMe.com seems a little malicious in nature, especially with the site’s catchphrase “Listing all those empty homes out there” and use of terms like “Recent Empty Homes” and “new opportunities” but the Dutch creators have made it clear they’re just doing this to drive home a point. The developers write:

“Services like Foresquare allow you to fulfill some primeval urge to colonize the plant. A part of that is letting everyone know you own that specific spot. You get to tell where you are and if you’re there first, it’s yours. O, and of course there’s badges.

The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves on place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. It gets even worse if you have “friends” who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That’s right, slap them across the face.”

And they have a point, as in the case of the purported Twitter-based robbery of Arizona resident Israel Hyman almost a year ago. Now that the idea is out there and all easily accessible in one location like PleaseRobMe.com, geo app users might want to seriously consider laying off the technology – or at least make sure someone else is at home when they’re not. Or invest in a guard dog.

Can FaceChipz Become the Facebook of Tween Social Networking?

Can social networking websites designed specifically for kids be successful? ReadWriteWeb has an interesting article on the latest entry into the social networking for kids industry, FaceChipz. Combining social networking with real-life networking, FaceChipz strikes a unique balance that could be appealing for the always difficult tween demographic.

The way FaceChipz works is that kids exchange plastic poker chips with unique web codes in real life, which can then be used to form connections on the FaceChipz website. Additionally, unlike traditional social networking websites, FaceChips has many safeguards to proect children from exposing personal privacy details. Of course, the website’s success depends on kids actually liking it, which is always a crapshoot.

Facebook is the Second Biggest Website…or the Fourth.

According to data from Compete, Facebook has surpassed Yahoo as the second largest website on the Internet with nearly 134 million unique visitors in Janurary. According to a similar data from ComScore, however, Facebook sits at 112 million visitors and is ranked fourth behind Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The difference between the Compete and ComScore data can be attributed to the fact that half od the users surveyed in the ComScore research came from outside of the United States where Facebook is gaining, but doesn’t have as tight a death grip on the web.

UC San Diego Frat Boys See Fallout from Racist Party

The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at UC San Diego is in hot water after they posted details of a racially insensitive Black History Month-themed party on Facebook. The party, conceived entirely by white male students and titled Compton Cookout, invited guests to dress and behave in stereotypically “ghetto” manners. Of course, the brothers of Pi Kappa Alpha didn’t expect that their moronic event would be shared as a public event on Facebook and now they are catching much-deserved bad press.

Watch out for the Kneber Botnet

According to computer security company NewWitness, a malicious botnet has infected computers in more than 2,500 corporations around the world. From the New York Times article, “The company’s investigation determined that the botnet has been able to compromise both commercial and government systems, including 68,000 corporate log-in credentials. It has also gained access to e-mail systems, online banking accounts, Facebook, Yahoo, Hotmail and other social network credentials, along with more than 2,000 digital security certificates and a significant cache of personal identity information.”

While not as big as the Conficker botnet of 2008, this new botnet, called the “Kneber botnet,” has the potential to be a major problem.

What do you do if your child is the cyberbully?

We talk often about how to prevent cyberbullying and keep your children from becoming a victim of abuse, but what if your child is the abuser? In an editorial for the Boston Globe, Lyla M. Alphonse discusses how some parents are wired to ignore their child’s inappropriate behavior and accept it as “boys being boys” or “girls being girls.”