3 Places Where Your Online Reputation and Privacy are in Danger

The nature of the internet is constantly changing and much of the anonymity we used to enjoy when sharing thoughts and content online has since evaporated. There are a lot of places on the internet where one can do damage to his or her online reputation and compromise privacy without even realizing it. Here are three of them:

Review Sites

Businesses can take a hit to their reputation because of content posted on review sites, but did you know that your own reputation and privacy can be affected by the reviews you post? That is because the username you use to post reviews under can follow you across the internet if you linked your name to your usrname. Even sites that post individual names (like Jeff H. or Steven P.) could affect your privacy if you have a unique name or live in a small town. This is because others can match up your username or name with other accounts you have created on the internet and learn all sorts of personal details about you that you wanted to keep private. Based on what you have reviewed, they can determine your location, your religion (if you review religious organizations) and even your private medical details (such as if you place a review for a doctor that specializes in a particular condition.)

Social Media Sites

We have written several blog posts about social media reputation and about how the content you share in Tweets or status updates could become indexed by Google and damage your online reputation. However, did you know that there are a number of online directories that collect information about you and others to broadcast across the web for everyone to see? These websites have bots crawl a number of different websites, like social media profiles, to acquire information like your birthday, phone number, physical address and occupation. This information is then freely available to anyone who visits the site, even if the information posted is untrue.

Comments on Posts and News Articles

Many people like to comment on news articles, blog posts, Facebook posts and forums, using their real name, a username, or even a social media account. Many websites allow individuals to sign-in using a social media account to make comments so that individuals do not have to memorize passwords for a bunch of different websites. However by doing so, you increase the risk of having those comments show up on the first page of Google when someone searches for you. If you used the comments section to share your political beliefs or come across as overly snarky, it can cause employers to not want to hire you or cause potential dating partners to decide not to date you. Even a comment as simple as “I agree, good article” on an editorial about a certain viewpoint will affect your online reputation.

If content you have posted in these areas has already begun to affect your online reputation, or even if you are worried about content you have posted on the web in these locations showing up in a Google search, Reputation911 can help with our online reputation management techniques. We will restore your online reputation by having our legal team pressure webmasters to remove private and fraudulent information from public websites, while our engineering team creates positive content to replace the negative or fraudulent articles taken down. Furthermore, we will secure your first page of Google results against any future unwanted articles or links.

To learn more about what Reputation911 and its online reputation management services, fill out the form on the right for a free consultation or call 866-MY-REP-911 (866-697-3791).