I have talked extensively about how important it is for our personal and professional lives to watch after our digital identities – the kind of photos and information that we post online about ourselves that can harm our reputation if a prospective employer or a date Google us and see it.
But as time goes by and we leave our marks on more and more websites, it is getting harder and harder to keep track of our online activities. And it is not even about being organized, I think it is getting practically impossible to know exactly what and where is posted about us or with a picture of us. New social networking sited come around, we sign up for them and then forget to close the account. And generally, whatever we do online can stay there indefinitely. It is not like a human memory – it is digital, sometimes it doesn’t fade. Information gets duplicated and copied and can live in many instances in the WWW forever.
So there is a paid service that would do this hard work of keeping track of your online presence for you. It is called the Reputation Defender. They can do everything you want them to – from checking for when and how your name comes up in the digital universe, to cleaning out things that you don’t want to be there, to monitoring the web for new information about you.
We never know what future has in the works for us. What if later on in life you decide to run for a public office, or become a celebrity, or fall in love or apply for a job of your dreams? Do you want your voters, fans, date or prospective employer see what you had to say when you were a college student, or see when you were having fun at a party or… (fill in the blank) If not – this service is worth checking out.
Interesting service. The "Web visibility finder" tool is pretty useful. It found references to pretty obscure accounts I created years ago. Funny there are no references to the StratComm program, however. I wonder if it blocks educational sites. - Tom
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tom. I assume that they may consider educational sites as something positive or appropriate. Although if that is the case, I think they shouldn't make that decision for you. They should collect the information and let you decide what you want to do with it.
ReplyDelete