In an amusing segment in last night’s episode of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman offered some tongue-in-cheek advice to individuals struggling with an online reputation management problem. While intended as satire, the segment offered some valuable information about how simple mistakes online can become major issues thanks to the viral nature of the Internet.

Check out the segment for yourself below.

They come when you least expect it!

They strike without hesitation!

They know everything about you!

BEWARE…

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THE INVASION OF THE DATA SNATCHERS!

Many people don’t know it, but every day data miners scour the Web for information about each and every one of us. Pulling data from public records, social networking profiles, commercial databases and more, they chop up our personal information into tiny bits, cross-index it using sophisticated computer technology, and then auction it off to the highest bidder in neat little packages.

Like the aliens from the famous 1956 sci-fi film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, data snatchers live here among us, going unrecognized among other more common privacy threats. Often, individuals don’t know that their data is at risk until it is too late: when they are stalked, scammed, denied a job, or declined for health coverage.

There are solutions out there though, such as the powerful personal privacy tools from Reputation.com. To learn more about how Reputation.com can help you protect your privacy, with our free tools and our suite of paid products, visit Reputation.com/GetPrivacy.

In the meantime, watch this video and behold the horror! If you have a privacy horror story of your own (identity theft, denied a job, etc.) please share it with us on Twitter using the hashtag #privacyhorrorstory.

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Rather than taking our word for it though, why not find out for yourself?

In a recent interview for New Scientist, Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik talked about the importance of online reputation management. As a supplement to the interview, New Scientist created this cool ORM flow chart that offers advice on how to improve your online reputation and what to do if your good name has been trashed on Google. Check out the flow chart below, and if you wind up in the “Get Help!” bubble, contact the experts at Reputation.com today.

The fine folks at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) have a different idea when it comes to Internet tracking. It’s still invasive, but it’s also fun.

For more than 50 years, NORAD (and its predecessor CONAD) have tracked Santa Claus during his world-spanning Christmas sleigh ride. In recent years, the tracking has gone high-tech, featuring Google Earth and even a mobile app to check Old St. Nick’s flight plan. Presumably, Santa is in on the tracking, which makes it okay. If Santa violated your privacy by checking in to your house on Foursquare, that would be a problem.

For more information about NORAD’s Santa Tracking efforts, check out the official NORAD Santa Tracker website. Also, check out this cute video from NORAD.

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In today’s Quick Hits, we look back at privacy issues throughout the year, debate the merits of friending parents on Facebook, and talk about online tracking and the FTC.

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Facebook Faces Privacy Concerns in South Korea

Facebook, often a target for concerns over privacy issues, has run into trouble again, this time in South Korea. According to the Washington Post, working from a Bloomberg report, “the Korean Communications Commission called Facebook’s privacy policy “inadequate,” and wants details on how it shares information with third parties. The regulatory agency’s main concern seems to be about user consent over shared information.”

Privacy Named Top Trend of 2010 by ReadWriteWeb

In its end-of-the-year analysis of top tech trends, ReadWriteWeb has put out a piece discussing why privacy was such a big issue in 2010. The article goes into detail on some of the big privacy news items from the year, including issues with Facebook privacy settings, Google’s privacy problems with Google Buzz and Street View, and the recent WikiLeaks saga, among other pertinent issues. For a recap on the privacy issues of 2010, you couldn’t ask for a better article.

Congressman Joe Barton Plans to Maintain Role as Privacy Leader

While Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) lost out to Fred Upton (R-MI) for the role of Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the congressman “plans to keep his position as the co-chair of the privacy caucus next year” and will continue to be active in consumer privacy issues according to The Hill.

New York Times Tech Talk Podcast Discusses Privacy and Online Tracking

In the most recent edition of the New York Times Tech Talk Podcast, host Bettina Edelstein talks with Tanzina Vega, a New York Times media reporter, about the FTC’s proposed “Do Not Track” option that would allow consumers to opt out of advertising networks and decline online tracking. The podcast discusses consumer reaction to the proposal, as well as the concerns voiced by the Internet advertising industry.

Should You Accept a Parent’s Friend Request? [Flowchart]

As more and more older adults begin joining Facebook, their children are faced with the prospect of becoming online friends with their parents. Mashable has a humorous flowchart from Cool Material that helps Facebook users make the difficult choice of accepting or denying their parents’ friend requests. Check it out below.

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.

We originally wrote this blog post for Halloween last year, but the advice is timeless.

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Ah Devil’s Night, you’ve come again. Does any other holiday inspire such poor decision making as Halloween? New Years is a close second (who among us can deny a glass of the bubbly?), but Halloween has to take the cake. Just take a walk around a Halloween costume shop. Would you find half of the adult costumes appropriate for any event other than Halloween? On second thought, don’t answer that question. We don’t need to hear the saucy details of your personal life here at the Reputation.com Blog.

Despite the fact that most people realize how inappropriate their costumes are, they will still buy them and, worse yet, take dozens of pictures in them. Before they know it, the pictures are tagged with their name and shared on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Uh-oh.

From the salacious to the politically incorrect to the just plain dumb, here is our list of the five halloween you do not want shared online.

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Department of Erections

Because nothing says “Hire Me” quite like a sexually aroused convict! Seriously, this costume is not only unfunny and inappropriate, but also awkward. It certainly wouldn’t be easy to walk around a crowded party, you know what I mean?

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Hot Dog Vendor

What is about men’s costumes and exposed genitals? Are we men really that immature? Wait, scratch that. I already know the answer. Also, the title of this costume is not descriptive enough. Instead of “Hot Dog Vendor,” it should be called “Future Sex Offender Regisrant.” The model’s expression doesn’t do much to help salvage the costume, either. “Hey ladies! There’s a box of hot dogs on my crotch. Get it?”

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Poo Poo Platter

If you think this costume is funny, think of this possible exchange.

YOU: Hi…Mary, right? I met you at the Halloween party?

MARY: Oh, Hi! That was so much fun! I don’t remember, what did you go as?

YOU: (deep breath) Um… Well… I went as a plate of poop.

MARY: Oh…right.

YOU: So, want to have coffee sometime?

MARY: (walks away)

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Sexy (insert word here)

It’s hard to pick one women’s costume that is especially inappropriate since they all have the same desired effect: turning regular women into strippers. Ladies, don’t pander to the chauvinistic costume industry! Buck the trend this year. Instead of being a sexy witch, be an ugly witch. Instead of being a sexy police officer, be a regular police officer (like the one that knocks on your door at 3:00AM to shut down your party). The possibilities are endless.

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Toilet Child

What do you do if you don’t want to dress up yourself, but you still want to bring shame on to your family’s good name? Hmm. I know! Dress your child up like a toilet! That way, when people check out pictures of your fun family halloween party on Facebook, they’ll always remember that you’re the family everyone else in the neighorhood craps on.

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By now, everyone should know how important it is to be careful about what you share online. Not only can you be fired for what you post on the web, but you can hurt your chances of getting into school too. Despite countless stern warnings, however, many Internet users do not take the time to consider the long-term effects of what they post on Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites.

If you’ve already made the mistake of buying one of the above costumes, and you’re planning to rock it at the bar on Saturday night, we beg of you,return it now. You might get some inebritated chuckles from friends, but the laughs will stop when you head to your next job interview. If you choose not to heed our warning, however, we won’t hold it against you. Heck, we’ll even help you find the pictures and take them down. Why? That’s just how we roll around here. Now go ahead and start planning next year’s costume.

With major companies like Google and Facebook in the headlines over privacy concerns, the issues of personal data security and online reputation have never been more hotly debated. Recently, Reputation.com COO Owen Tripp sat down with ZDNet journalist Jennifer Leggio to discuss how media coverage of privacy issues has increased demand for services that offer control over online identity.

Here is an excerpt from their interview:

Q. I imagine that Reputation.com is booming considering all of the attention on online safety and reputation management now. Have you seen an uptick in memberships over the last year?

A. It’s been an amazing year. It’s fun to watch memberships flow in from all kinds of new user types.  I am seeing moms joining so they can look out for their teens online and physicians interested in protecting the reputations of their practice in an online review-driven world.  Cooler still, we’re finding that the mom and the physician are one in the same person — and we have to be able to meet both of her goals online.  It presents a fun product challenge for us!

Check out Owen’s full conversation with Jennifer Leggio at the ZDNet Social Business Blog.

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Stanford Mayfield Fellows Program Graduation!  Please note the sensible choice of sartorial splendor.