It’s that time of year again. Yes, time to reflect back on the previous 12 months and determine what you’d like to do better. Time to put your best foot forward in the year to come, keeping in mind new goals, things you’d like to keep the same, or items you plan to do only slightly different. We at Reputation.com like to put our best foot forward in the new year too – our digital foot – so we’ve compiled a list of seven simple to-do items to keep our online reputations spotless and protect our digital privacies. Feel free to follow in our footsteps!

1. Turn on cookie notices in your Web browser.

Cookies are information that websites can store on your computer, preventing you from having to type in the same information every time you visit a website. Some cookies are used to monitor what types of sites you visit and items you buy online, a process called data mining, A few browsers, including Netscape and Internet Explorer, allow you manage cookie settings and select what cookies you’d like to have or not have on your computer. Also, you can use easy-to-find cookie management software, such as www.adsubtract.com for Windows.

2. Know your online privacy settings and use them.

This is a simple yet effective idea and an opportunity for you to learn a little about how protected – or unprotected – you really are. Recently, we shared a complete guide to Facebook’s updated privacy settings. Check them out here. Here’s a helpful website for turning on privacy settings for MySpace. It’s a good idea to explore the settings of each site before you begin actively using them.

3. Use a temporary credit card number for online purchasing.

Though the Christmas rush to purchase presents online is past, it’s always a good idea to follow this suggestion. Call your credit card provider to determine if they can issue a temporary number with a preset spending limit and impending expiration date. To stay even more secure, try and pay with cash whenever possible.

4. Set up a separate account for your personal e-mail.

If you haven’t done this already, it’s time. Work e-mail isn’t safe. Besides the fact that you may accidentally share important company information with outsiders, employers often have the legal rights to view the information in your account. If they don’t like what they see, you can be fired. Signing up for a free account with Google’s Gmail or Microsoft’s Hotmail is quick and easy to do, and often accessible from work.

5. Make sure you’re using strong passwords and protecting those passwords, or change your passwords altogether for the New Year.

Avoid passwords that can easily be guessed, such as your last name, spouse’s names, date of birth, etc. Vary your passwords from site to site and change them occasionally. A secure password is one of the most important parts of maintaining a secure identity on the web. If you don’t have strong passwords already, make some today. After all, there’s no time like the present!

6. Update your online profile.

Keep your online reputation fresh and updated with information you want people to know on websites you use regularly. Renew your public profiles on LinkedIn and other professional web pages, blogging sites, and social networking platforms with new work information, achievements, hobbies, links, and more. Keep people in the loop with the info you don’t mind sharing.

7. Be extra wary of any information you enter online.

This is more of a general tip to keep in mind throughout 2010 and beyond. Even if you’re using a social networking website, that doesn’t mean you have to share all there is to know about you. Taking the cautious route isn’t a bad thing at all. You should only enter your information into sites you know and trust. Treat websites like you would treat your e-mail. If you see spam, delete it. There are plenty of phony websites that shouldn’t be used at all.

New York Jets Wide Receiver David Clowney joined a new support group recently. The “no-I-didn’t-say-that-on-Twitter-what-do-you-think-I’m-nuts?” club.

Clowney and a growing number of celebrities, politicians, and other high profile individuals have had their Twitter accounts compromised, only to have the hacker send out humiliating tweets to the online world. Though most attacks haven’t lasted more than a couple minutes, the situation is embarrassing for both Twitter and the megastar, or even average Joe, who has to explain what happened.

Clowney’s Twitter account hack has been one of the worst so far with the attacker going on for hours, swearing at and insulting bewildered fans. Other notable hack attacks include the Fox News Twitter account, where comments about Bill O’Riley’s sexuality popped up, and the Britney Spears Twitter feed, where the assailant posted extremely distasteful remarks about the pop superstar, as well as references to Satanic worship. CNN’s Rick Sanchez, President Barack Obama, and The Huffington Post have all had their tweets hijacked too with disturbing results.

The majority of Twitter account hackings occurred back on January 5, when 33 tweeters had their accounts put into lock-down phase after Twitter discovered an infiltration. The company released a statement on the Twitter Blog, saying the hacker had “hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things like edit the email address associated with their Twitter account when they can’t remember or get stuck.” Twitter responded by moving the support tools offline for a period. Additionally, Twitter officials claimed they were undertaking a “full security review of all access points” at the time determine the problem, while increasing sign-in security.

Currently, the company is working on a beta version of Twitter Verified Accounts – a method of determining the authenticity of users who establish Twitter accounts. In other words, making sure Britney Spears or an official agent of Britney Spears is setting up the Britney Spears Twitter account. However, this system doesn’t address who is writing the tweets on each account.

Even social networking giant Facebook hasn’t completely resolved the hacking problem with the rash of worm viruses, phishing and spam attacks, and money transfer scams Facebook users have been bombarded with in the last year. In Facebook’s defense though, the top networking site does provide a comprehensive Q&A to warn users and help them address the problems themselves. Facebook’s latest problem: worm pimps, designed to entice even the most stalwart social networker into visiting naughty sites.

Twitter’s security problems fall far outside of “rogue tweeters.” In June a hacker comprised delicate company information, including Twitter staff PayPal passwords and other internal documents, and e-mailed them out to various companies. So when can we expect Twitter to clean up it’s security act, and how? Perhaps all that’s needed is a series of questions to access each account, like those employed by financial institutions, to better weed out the fakes.

Currently, Twitter and other Silicon Valley companies are beta testing the OAuth, open protocol system. The technology would allow Twitter users to use applications without having to give away account information. Whether or not the protocol will help or hinder Twitter’s security difficulties though, preventing defamatory tweets from being broadcast to hundreds of followers by phonies, remains to be seen.

Are you a clogger? No, I’m not talking about dancing. I’m talking about corporate blogging. While corporate blogs sometimes lack the whiz-bang and pop of personal blogs, there are many benefits to owning a piece of real estate in the blogosphere. In fact, despite their reputation for being dry and witless, more than 60 Fortune 500 companies have embraced corporate blogging, demonstrating that success depends on careful planning and precise execution.

Besides just looking cool, clogs may actually help bridge disconnects between youthful consumers and a super-conventional corporations, showing young folks that even old companies can learn new tricks. If done right, clogs updated with regular new content give consumers a reason to keep coming back to corporate websites, boosting search engine visibility in the process. Clogging opens up another avenue to consumer dialogue, too, allowing the company to post new ideas, events, thoughts, etc., and letting the customer give direct feedback to the posts. Take GMC’s FastLane clog, where the car manufacturer keeps clients up-to-date on new technology, products, and its overall financial status.

The detriments to clogging can, in some cases, have the opposite effect of the pros – establishing and maintaining a clog can cost the company more than the perceived benefit. Though relatively easy and inexpensive to set up, the return on investment of clogging is difficult to gauge. Additionally, in most cases clogs do not receive a lot of web traffic and can open a company up to legal ramifications with objective content posted on a regular basis. Oftentimes clogging can be time consuming, yet the activity is largely ineffective without constantly updating postings with fresh content. Additionally, corporate blogging begs the question of what voice to use and then how and where to find the right writers to create the copy, or ghost-develop the text in the case of a company executive clog.

As if making the leap to clogging was not enough, corporations who choose to clog now have to decide what type of clog they want to use. Forms of clogs include a company blog (the most common type), a CEO blog, written or contributed to by company executives, an industry blog focused strictly on happenings in a company’s field, a department or product blog, and a customer service blog.

Obviously, given the potential benefits and pitfalls involved, there are many strategic decisions that have to be made before you commit to creating a clog. To get a good idea of some successful corporate blogs, check out the Official Google Blog, long considered the standard in clogging, Amazon.com’s Amazon Daily blog, and Whole Story, the official Whole Foods blog.