Five individuals filed a civil lawsuit against Facebook earlier today, alleging that Facebook has misled users and failed to respect California state privacy laws.   From the Wall Street Journal:

“Plaintiffs and the general public desire and expect a level of privacy, which Facebook has failed to satisfy under its current policies, procedures, practices, and technology,” the complaint states. The plaintiffs, which include a photographer, an actress, and some middle school and college students, are demanding damages and attorney’s fees and requesting a jury trial.

This complaint, the first of its kind as far as we know, comes on the heels of the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s recent report on Facebook’s lack of privacy safeguards against a major privacy breach.  It’s worth noting, though, Facebook announced this morning that it plans to revise its privacy and security policies to bring them in line with Canadian privacy law, and satisfy the demands of Commissioner Stoddart’s report.

Be sure to check out our previous posts on protecting your privacy on Facebook and how Facebook Applications are mining your personal data.

Reputation.com has been working with the Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe), a non-profit that works for the health and safety of youth online, to create resources that help guidance counselors educate kids in the US about how their online reputations can keep them safe, and help (rather than harm) their ability to get into college — Download Reputation.com’s Guide to keeping your kids safe online today!

iKeepSafe launched Project PRO (Privacy & Online Reputation) at this summer’s American School Counselors Association annual meeting in Dallas, TX.  I’d like to send a special thank you to our reputation agents who contributed their expertise in creating the booklet, DVD and online materials (http://www.ikeepsafe.org/ASCA) that have now been distributed to educators nationwide.  Marsali Hancock, President of iKeepSafe, on the launch of Project PRO:

“What youth post online today directly impacts their future academic and employment opportunities. Reputation.com has worked closely with iKeepSafe to develop content for school counselors that teaches students how to protect their privacy online, and help students create an online reputation that is an asset rather than a liability. We are grateful for Reputation.com’s support and for sharing their expertise about managing and building an online reputation that opens doors to future opportunities, rather than eliminating them.”

Concerned parents can also find helpful tips in these materials for ensuring the safety of their kids online, and try MyChild to combat the spread of potentially harmful information about their kids online. As always, we here at Reputation.com recommend that you keep current with technology, keep communicating with your kids about what they’re doing online, and keep checking on their Internet activity. With a great online reputation, the sky is the limit for your kids!

Reputation.com and iKeepSafe’s 3 Key Tips for Parents:

1. Keep Current with Technology:  Talk to teachers about what forms of Internet safety tools they implement in computer labs and technology classes, consider these safety tools for home use, and stay up-to-date on the capabilities of any mobile devices your child may have.

2. Keep Communicating with Your Kids:  Find out who your child talks to online, educate your kids about the permanence of any “digital footprints” they leave behind, limit the use of social networks, and make it a habit to engage your kids in critical conversation—the more you talk to your kids about their online usage, the more they will learn to use digital products in a safe and healthy manner.

3. Keep Checking Your Kid’s Internet Activity:  Keep computers in a central public location, check your child’s browsing histories, and limit your child’s computer time—there’s a whole world of outdoor and offline activities where they should be involved!

At this summer’s SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) Conference, Bing and CareerBuilder announced a partnership to create the CareerBuilder Applicant Explorer. According to CareerBuilder, the tool combs information from CB’s database of 31 million resumes and combines it with indexed online content from Bing. It allows employers to search the Web for potential employees’ social networking profiles, blogs, news articles, and forum posts, and is available free of charge to employers who use CareerBuilder’s Resume Database Service.

But fear not, Reputation.com was also at SHRM, seeking new ways to protect individual jobseekers’ good names on the Web. With MyReputation, we provide a deep-dive search that shows where your name is on the web beyond Bing’s indexed search results. If you find something unflattering, you can take advantage of our destroy services to remove damaging content before you apply for a job. You could also subscribe to MyEdge to make sure that employers find the information YOU want them to see when they search you on Bing.

With over 83% of hiring managers using search engines to research candidates, and 43% of them admitting to eliminating candidates based on negative information that they find, monitoring your online reputation has become a necessity. CareerBuilder’s Applicant Explorer makes HR managers’ access to your online info easier, so make sure to try MyReputation and MyEdge to ensure that you get a top-notch job offer.  Don’t forget, 24% of hiring managers said that they found information that solidified their decision to make a hire.

We recently had a concerned police officer share a story with us from PoliceOne.com, a resource that provides officers with the news and tools necessary to protect their communities and protect themselves on the streets.

“One Deputy’s Nightmare: Dealing with Violent Stalkers” recalls Deputy Karen Moss’ chilling report of being being stalked online after apprehending a suspect in a gunfight.  The incarcerated suspect offered a bounty on Moss’ head, apparently providing prospective murderers-for-hire with her name, description, and a suggestion to use Zabasearch to locate her home:

At the jail, [an] informer floated the name of the driver Moss had shot and asked if she knew him. She said yeah, and he said, “Well, he tried to hire me to kill you.” [...]  “I was skeptical, initially,” Moss recalls. But then the snitch produced an incriminating scrap of paper the suspect had given him. Handwritten, it included her name, her physical description, and the name of a website, Zabasearch.com.

[...]

In street searches, she had pulled Zabasearch printouts or notations from the pockets of several suspects. “Zaba is very well known by criminals,” she says, “and they use it.” She had also learned that the home addresses of two officers who’d recently been in shootings, including one living on her block, were accessible there without the officers being aware of it. She figured it was only a matter of time until some angered arrestee or vengeful relative was able to successfully track a cop to his home and wreak violent retribution on him or his family.

Here at Reputation.com, we hear on a daily basis from individuals who are concerned about the safety of their families and the security of their home as a result of the spread of people-data on the Web.  Hundreds of websites like Zabasearch.com give out (free of charge) personally identifiable data like your name, current and former addresses, phone numbers, date of birth, and corresponding information for your relatives and children.  Often times, the only way to remove your information from these sites is to call, email, or send snail-mail to each one — and rarely does the opt-out policy of one “people-data” site match another.

PoliceOne.com notes that Zabasearch agreed to prioritize the removal of Moss’ information, and the addresses of other officers, over standard opt-out submissions.  That helps.  But where does this leave you?  With more than 200 additional people-data sites and information aggregators on the Internet, the average individual faces a daunting task when attempting to wipe their information off of the web. That’s why we created MyPrivacy. With MyPrivacy, Reputation.com has partnered with leading online data providers in order to provide one resource where you can quickly and easily remove your personal data from the Internet.

So, what else can you do?  We recommend being proactive about keeping your data off the web.  People databases typically acquire your information from “public records” (court records, building permits, phone listings, etc.) and marketing lists.  It’ll be tough to get yourself out of public records, but you can stem the flow by thinking twice the next time to register for a discount card (ever wonder why Safeway gives you those great discounts just for registering?), contest, or even a new credit card.