Managing Your Online Reputation--With a Little Help

Wired has an article about reputation management services that are springing up on Web.

Michael Fertik and his partners originally conceived of ReputationDefender as a way for parents to protect their children from potentially damaging postings to social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. “I don’t like the idea that kids and teenagers might suffer lifelong harm because of momentary mistakes,” says Fertik.

From Wired News: Delete Your Bad Web Rep
Referenced Wed Nov 08 2006 15:52:37 GMT-0800 (PST)

Of course, the service might be useful to people who are a bit older as well. They charge a monthly fee and then a fee for help removing offending items, using a combination of investigation and legal threats.

“If the letter is sufficiently threatening,” says Crawford, “the threaten-ee could bring his or her own lawsuit seeking a declaration that what they posted wasn’t unlawful. But, again, most people will just buckle rather than fight back.”

From Wired News: Delete Your Bad Web Rep
Referenced Wed Nov 08 2006 15:54:39 GMT-0800 (PST)

So, bloggers beware—you may get a nasty note sometime threatening you with legal action if you don’t take down that comment where someone made a fool of themselves.

Posted by windley on November 8, 2006 4:56 PM