Previous reputation offender, Mel Gibson, is at it again. In 2006, Gibson was caught on tape spewing hateful anti-semitic language. This month, a leaked tape recording, featuring a wide array of violent, misogynistic, and racist tirades from Gibson, has thrust the actor-director back into the spotlight, ruining his reputation again and, this time perhaps, for good.
Watch below as Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik puts a new spin on the Mel Gibson drama, discussing how negative publicity leads to negative Google search results and a ruined online reputation. Fertik reminds us just how powerful and viral the Web is and how without the support of a Hollywood publicist (tough gig for Gibson’s), you need to be proactive in quickly repairing your reputation online.
Facebook set a new traffic record last month, earning 141 million unique visitors. Facebook’s continued growth puts it close to Google’s numbers. The search giant tallied 179 million unique visitors in May. Since last year, Facebook has doubled its traffic.
The anonymous video chat service Chatroulette burst onto the national scene several months ago, earning praise from tech pundits for its innovation as well as criticism from safety advocated for its rampant nudity. Now, thanks to researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and McGill University, it may also draw criticism for not being all that anonymous.
According to a PC World article, the researchers were able to determine the identity of several Chatroulette users by combining public Facebook data with IP information. “Because Chatroulette’s back-end system shares user IP addresses, researchers were able to use IP-mapping services to get a general idea of user’s location (a public Web site, called Chatroulettemap.com already does this). Then by searching Facebook using information obtained in chats and comparing pictures, researchers were able to identify chatters.”
You might think that Foursquare and Gowalla users are comfortable with sharing their location (why would they use location-based social networking, if they didn’t?), but a recent survey of 1,500 location-based website users revealed that over half (55%) are worried about loss of privacy. In general, women were more likely to worry about their privacy than men.
In a column for the Wall Street Journal’s Hire Education blog, personal branding expert Dan Schawbel shares five tips to help job seekers find work, or, as he puts it, help work find them. One of Schawbel’s recommendations is to “clean up and promote your online presence” demonstrating again that proactive online reputation management is key for job seekers.
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about the difference between people and businesses and why one man thinks Mark Zuckerberg owes him a few billion dollars.
Blizzard, the makers of the popular game World of Warcraft, set off a firestorm of debate earlier in the month when the company decided to force all users to use their real names on the game’s forums. The idea was to root out “trolls,” or users who intentionally and maliciously antagonize the community, by disallowing them to hide behind anonymous usernames. Recently, however, Blizzard backed off from its plans after facing widespread opposition from players.
In an ironic twist regarding the Blizzard/World of Warcraft privacy issue, a number of users who opposed the site’s plans to use RealID accidentally had their e-mail addresses exposed after sending notes to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board asking for help. The ESRB exposed the e-mail addresses accidentally when an employee failed to use the BCC option to send a mass e-mail.
Don Tapscott has an interesting op-ed in the Huffington Post about Internet privacy and the importance of transparency online. Tapscott argues that the influx of information online has been a good thing in the sense that it has forced companies to be more proactive in communicating with their customers and maintaining fair business practices. However, Tapscott also argues that individuals are not the same as companies, and therefore should not be forced or tricked into being “transparent” with their personal data.
An article in the San Francisco Chronicle traces the origins of the Federal Trade Commission and explores how the rapid growth of the Internet has changed its focus. Specifically, the article touches on the FTC’s expanding role as an “Internet Cop” responsible for protecting consumers from having their personal and private data abused.
In what is likely a frivolous lawsuit, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been sued by a New York man over a claim that he owns 84% of the multi-billion dollar company. According to CNET, “Paul D. Ceglia of Wellsville, N.Y., claims in a lawsuit that he entered into a contract with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 to design and develop a Web site that would ultimately become the social-networking giant. The contract entitled Ceglia to a $1,000 fee and a 50 percent stake in the final product, which eventually launched as TheFacebook.com.”
In today’s Quick Hits, we explore Google’s ongoing tête-à-tête with China, talk about child safety on Facebook, and discuss how Australia hopes to avoid more Internet privacy problem.
Google and China have reached a temporary agreement that will allow the company to continue operating in the country. In protest of Chinese Internet censorship, Google had been automatically sending Chinese Google users to its Hong Kong-based website. Two weeks ago, China barred Google from automatically redirecting users to the Hong Kong website, leading Google to instead began displaying a prominent link to the Hong Kong site. According to the New York Times, Beijing will continue to allow Google to operate in this manner. Analysts see it as a decent compromise, though it will likely hurt Google’s business in the long-run.
Last week, Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis declared that Google had broken Australian privacy law when it accidentally collected Wi-Fi payload data with its Street View cars, but that the company wouldn’t face any punishment. Today, Special Minister of State Joe Ludwig proposed an update to Australia’s 22-year-old privacy act to ensure that if future privacy violations occur, companies will be held accountable. In most countries throughout the world, including the United States, privacy laws were written before the Internet became a major part of our everyday lives.
In a guest post for ProBlogger, Chris Birk discusses why bloggers should pay attention to “Google Suggest” as it relates to their online reputations. Google Suggest is the feature that gives predictive search suggestions based on the words you type into the Google search box. Birk argues that if your name or your company’s name in Google Suggest is associated with words like “scam,” searchers will instinctively select the negative-leaning search string.
Months after meeting with the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), Facebook has come through on its promise of enhanced child safety features. According to CNET, “though it’s successfully resisted pressure to install a mandatory ‘panic button’ on users’ home pages, Facebook has permitted the U.K.’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to build an app for its platform that members of the social-networking site can use to report online abuse directly to CEOP or seek advice about potential dangers of the Web.”
A number of reports have suggested that Google recently invested between $100 and $200 million in social gaming company Zynga (makers of the popular Farmville game for Facebook). Allegedly, Google’s investment in Zynga is part of the company’s plans to build a gaming platform called Google Games, which will be a major part of Google’s forthcoming social networking website Google Me. This PC World article asks “5 Burning Questions” about the Google-Zynga deal, including how privacy concerns may factor into its success.
In today’s Quick Hits, Facebook and Google make apologies for privacy issues, World of Warcraft players ponder the ramifications of using their real names online, and a respected voice in the Internet privacy debate earns some nice kudos from Fortune magazine.
Yesterday, Facebook confirmed it received a notice from German privacy official Johannes Caspar regarding a possible fine for “failing to obtain the consent of the people whose contact details it stores.” When a new member joins Facebook, he or she may upload their e-mail address book to the site so they can invite their e-mail contacts to join the website. The privacy issue comes into play because Facebook will store a non-user’s contact e-mail even if the new user didn’t invite them to join the site. It should be noted that this problem is not unique to Facebook, and is a part of the sign-up process for most social media websites.
In Businessweek, contributor and marketing executive C. Edward Brice offers six tips for companies managing social media. The six tips are all mostly intuitive. The main theme running through all of them is the importance of authenticity. Social media should be used to start a dialogue, not for one-sided promotion.
According to ZDNet Australia, “Australian Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis today said her investigation into Google’s inadvertent collection of Wi-Fi payload data through its Street View vehicles showed that any collection of personal data by the search giant ‘would have’ breached the Australian Privacy Act.” In response, Google released a formal apology to Australians and promised to work even more closely with Curtis’ office to avoid future privacy problems. Neither Curtis’ investigation or the Google apology mentioned what would happen with the Wi-Fi payload data Google currently possesses.
Earlier this week, Blizzard, one of the world’s largest Internet gaming developers and the company behind World of Warcraft, announced a new “Real ID” system. According to CNET, the system “allows friends to easily follow each other’s activities in Blizzard games like World of Warcraft. It also introduces cross-game chat and social-networking features that let users see not just their friends, but also their friends’ friends.”
The snag for some Blizzard users is that Real ID requires players to sign-up with their real name. Using a real name online can be a good thing, as it eliminates some of the incentive to defame or slander someone, but it also opens up a privacy issue. If one World of Warcraft user gets into some altercation online and they have their opponent’s name, what’s stopping the angry user from seeking that person out? Luke Plunkett of the popular gaming blog Kotaku has an interesting take on the issue.
Social media researcher and privacy advocate Danah Boyd has been named to Fortune magazine’s Smartest People in Tech list under the title of Smartest Academic. This year at South by Southwest, Boyd’s speech on Internet privacy was a big hit, leading to a number of others in the tech space to begin questioning Google, Facebook, and other major companies on privacy issues.
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