In a picture perfect example of how quickly one mistake can ruin your online reputation, the small food magazine Cooks Source has become a laughingstock online after one editor refused to apologize for plagiarizing a writer’s content.

The story begins with Monica Gaudio, who wrote a medieval apple pie recipe for the website GodeCookery.com. Sometime after, Gaudio received a congrats note from a friend who found her article republished at Cooks Source. The only thing is, it was republished without her permission, in its entirety, with no acknowledgement to the original website.

When Gaudio contacted the editor of Cooks Source, one Judith Griggs, she requested a public apology on Cooks Source’s Facebook page and a donation of $130 to the Columbia School of Journalism. That’s when things turned ugly.

Griggs inexplicably responded to Gaudio saying,

“honestly Monica, the web is considered ‘public domain’ and you should be happy we just didn’t ‘lift’ your whole article and put someone else’s name on it!… If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain… We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me!”

This shocking response, which is also completely inaccurate, left Gaudio fuming. The story quickly found its way onto the social sharing website Reddit, where it took off among the web savvy crowd. Soon, comments began appearing on the Cooks Source Facebook page excoriating the publication for plagiarism. Famed author Neil Gaiman even got in on the act and shared the story with his legions of followers.

Griggs herself has become a punching bag on the web, with Google results for her name returning negative news articles about the incident as well as a website set-up to define the word Griggs as meaning “1. To use content on the web without permission, then request payment from original author for rewrites and editing.” or “2. To remain ignorant of plagiarism, ethics, copyright, and asshat behavior.”

Clearly, Cooks Source Magazine responded to this situation poorly, but nobody could have predicted just how swift and severe the reaction would be on the Internet. This incident demonstrates why businesses must be extra careful about how they handle complaints online, and that they should have a strategy in place to manage a reputation crisis like this when it occurs.

Now, both Cooks Source and Ms. Griggs personally will face an uphill battle in reclaiming their online reputations. Some will undoubtedly say, “Good, they deserve it,” but that’s neither here nor there. The more interesting issue is how quickly the Internet can mobilize against someone and cause permanent damage to their reputation. At the very least, it certainly makes you think twice about how you respond to people in e-mails.

Here is some additional coverage of this story from the Washington Post, Forbes, and the L.A. Times.

In today’s Quick Hits, Twitter and Facebook get failing grades in security, thoughts on how the election may change the possibility of new privacy legislation, and plans for stricter privacy laws in the European Union.

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Facebook Friends Help Politicians Get Elected

This article from the Los Angeles Times technology blog discusses how Facebook accurately predicted the winners in 74% of the House of Representatives races and 82% of the Senate races. According to Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes, “The data, while not fail-proof, signifies the increasing role that social media sites like Facebook play in both mobilizing voters and predicting election results.”

Facebook Answers Congress Inquiry Over User ID Controversy

Not long after the Wall Street Journal revealed that several of Facebook’s top applications developers were passing along Facebook User IDs to third-party advertisers and data mining companies, several Congressional leaders requested a statement from the company clarifying the issue. In Facebook’s public response, Marne Levine, Facebook’s vice president of global public policy, said “”The sharing of UIDs by Facebook with third-party applications does not involve the sharing of any private user data and is in no sense a privacy ‘breach.’ On the contrary, the sharing of UIDs is critical to people’s ability to use third-party applications on the Facebook Platform.”

Levine did acknowledge that Facebook took action against the developers who knowingly shared and sold UID data to data brokers, saying, “”We identified fewer than a dozen developers that were intentionally sharing UIDs with a data broker…this is the first instance in which we have learned of such activity, and, as noted, we have taken decisive enforcement action.”

With Elections Over, How Will Privacy Policy Change in Congress?

Speaking of Congress, now that the Republican Party has a majority in the House of Representatives and a stronger representation in the Senate, how will Internet privacy concerns be treated? This article from Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post discusses how some are worried about privacy legislation now that long-time privacy advocate Rick Boucher (D-Va) has lost his Senate seat. Citing privacy analysts, the article suggests that increased consumer awareness of privacy and data concerns will make the issue a priority for both Democrats and Republicans and that new legislation could still be coming, even without Boucher’s leadership.

European Union Wants Stronger Privacy Laws

According to a Reuters report, “The European Union (EU) wants stronger privacy rules to give Internet users more control over how social-networking sites such as Facebook, or search engines such as Google use their personal information.” The new rules could be written as soon as next year and would replace the EU’s existing privacy legislation, which is 15 years old. Europeans have traditionally shown more concern over privacy issues than American citizens, particular with regard to Internet technology.

Facebook and Twitter Get “F’s” in Online Security

A “digital think tank” called Digital Society recently ranked top websites for its Online Services Security Report Card. Facebook and Twitter were among the numerous websites that earned a failing grade according to the report, which analyzed how vulnerable each website was to a possible security breach.

In today’s Quick Hits, Bing launches social search, Facebook predicts the election results, and a hacker steals explicit images of women and posts them online.

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Bing Goes Live with Facebook Social Search

Microsoft has officially gone live with the Bing-Facebook Social Search integration. A CNET report describes how the new feature works: “If you opt to link your Facebook account with your Bing log-in, searching for the name of one of your Facebook friends in Bing brings up a link to that person’s entire profile in your results. This is true even if that person has elected not to share their Facebook profile with any search engines, since only you can see those results. So if you have a Facebook friend named Jerry Seinfeld, a link to his profile will appear alongside results for the famed comedian.”

Hacker Steals X-Rated Photos and Posts Them on Facebook

A 23-year-old California man was arrested for hacking into the e-mail accounts of more than 3,000 women and then posting explicit images he found on Facebook. According to the report, “Police believe that Bronk broke into about 3,200 Web mail accounts by guessing the answers to password reset questions used by services such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Microsoft’s Hotmail.” The man used Facebook profiles to get detailed information about the women to help answer the security questions. So far, police have identified 20 victims, but they expect to find more. Police speculate that the man “posted images to between 170 and 176 Facebook pages, and also e-mailed them to the victim’s friends.”

UK Says Google Broke Law with Street View Wi-Fi Snooping, but Won’t File Charges

Following in the footsteps of the United States, Britain’s Information Commissioner Christopher Graham has decided not to fine Google for accidentally collecting WiFi data, e-mail information, and passwords, despite calling the incident a “significant breach” of UK law. According to an Ars Technica report, Graham said “he would rather be content with a written promise from Google that such a thing wouldn’t happen again” than pursuing further legal action.

Google Trends Over 24 Hours

CNET’s Tom Krazit has an interesting article examining how Google Trends, the company’s barometer of what people are searching for, changed over the course of one whole day. The results show how Google provides an accurate pulse of what the nation is discussing, and also how the company scrubs the list to make sure no inappropriate content comes up.

Facebook Accurately Predicted Election Results

Clearly, a politician’s social media presence is important in getting their message out, but until now nobody knew for sure if having more “friends” meant getting more votes. According to Facebook’s political team, however, Facebook friends really do add up to votes. A Fast Company article this morning discusses how politicians with more Facebook fans than their opponents “won 74% of House races and 81% of Senate races.” It wasn’t a guarantee though, as Facebook friends were inaccurate in predicting victories for Christine O’Donnell, Meg Whitman, and Sharron Angle.

We spotted this humorous cartoon in the New Yorker recently and thought it was too good to not pass along. In light of the Wall Street Journal’s investigation into third-party Facebook data mining, the cartoon illustrates an important point about Web technology and the way that Internet users implicitly give up their privacy rights when they shop online or use social networking websites.

Websites like Facebook allow users to connect with friends and family, interact with their favorite brands, and share content from all across the web for free. However, while these sites require no monetary cost, there is a hidden privacy cost. When you sign up for social networking websites, install applications, comment on someone’s wall, or do any of the thousand other things that regular people do online, marketers take note and use that information to create personalized advertising campaigns based on your data.

For consumers, understanding that this privacy exchange occurs is an important step toward reclaiming control over their personal data. Once you realize that your personal information is out there, you can begin taking proactive steps toward protecting it. One step is to sign up for MyPrivacy from Reputation.com. With MyPrivacy, you can remove personal data from people-search websites across the Internet with one click. Please contact the Reputation.com team for more details about how MyPrivacy works.

In today’s Quick Hits, we have an update in the Tyler Clementi case, some information about the effect of texting on teenage sleep habits, and Google’s new plans to root out security problems.

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University of Hawaii at Manoa Accidentally Leaks Private Info of 40,000 Former Students

A former faculty member of the University of Hawaii at Manoa accidentally posted sensitive data, including social security numbers, of more than 40,000 former students online. The faculty member responsible for the data breach incorrectly believed she was working on an encrypted server.

Google Street View Goes Live in Germany

Google Street View has gone live in Germany and, as promised, the individuals who requested privacy have had their houses blurred out. Almost three percent of German households opted into the Street View privacy program. In his Technically Incorrect column, Chris Matyszczyk discusses Google’s blurring method, and satirically predicts a new wave of blur-inspired art.

Texting and Late-Night Web Use Affects Kids’ Sleep Habits

A new survey from doctors at the JFK Sleep Disorders Center in New Jersey postulates that one reason teens are developing sleeping problems is their constant use of cell phone and web technology. According to Ars Technica, “The survey found that the kids sent an average of 34 texts per night after lights out, sometimes falling asleep with their phones beside their heads, only to wake again when a new text arrived. The authors link these behaviors to poor sleep, irritability, and even problems like anxiety disorders.”

Google Pays Cash for Finding Security Holes

Google wants to pay people to hack into its sites, or at least let them know that they could be hacked. Mimicking a program that was successful with Google Chrome, Google is offering cash rewards to individuals who uncover security vulnerabilities across Google’s network of websites. The rewards range in value from $500 to $3,133.70 (which humorously spells out “elite” in the nerd language leetspeak).

Update in Tyler Clementi Case

Last month, gay rights and privacy advocates across the country condemned Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei for their part in secretly videotaping Ravi’s roommate Tyler Clementi in a sexual encounter. After Clementi committed suicide, presumably in response to the invasion of privacy, Ravi and Wei were arrested, but now Ravi’s attorney is maintaining that the pair did not see any explicit sexual content via the web feed and that there was no dissemination of the web video. The exact circumstances surrounding the webcam monitoring will be important during the course of Ravi and Wei’s trial.