ReputationDefender: service promises to help clean up the mess you left behind

[mandy]

The mistakes you make on the internet can live forever -- unless you hire somebody to clean up after you.

A new startup, ReputationDefender, will act on your behalf by contacting data hosting services and requesting the removal of any materials that threaten your good social standing. Any web citizen willing to pay ReputationDefender's modest service fees can ask the company to seek and destroy embarrassing office party photos, blog posts detailing casual drug use or saucy comments on social networking profiles...

ReputationDefender breaks its services into three categories: "My Reputation," which is aimed at adults hoping to track down and eliminate those momentary lapses of reason; "My Child," for parents who want to protect their children from errors of youth that may come back to haunt them later in life; and "My Privacy," which helps to remove a client's data from the web's various data-brokering websites that store private information such as Social Security and driver's license numbers, home addresses and phone numbers...

full article: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,7...=rss.index

[BellisimaJ.]

Good article, Mandy--thanks!

Great idea if they are able to actually deliver on their promises. I have some doubts.

[sneakymagenta]

My reputation is clean because I never use my real name or business name on forums. 

[mandy]

A related article:

Mr. Kuznicki, the blogger, said he refused to take down the information about Ms. Parascandola because he merely included published information and expressed personal opinions. "I was surprised to get a notice like this, because I don't run an unprofessional or defamatory blog," said Mr. Kuznicki, a Bowie, Md., policy researcher for a think tank.

Ms. Parascandola criticized ReputationDefender for sending a letter directly to someone who had already written critical things of her -- an approach she considered clumsy. "I certainly would not have authorized that," she said. Mr. Fertik said he apologized to Ms. Parascandola and refunded her fees.

While Mr. Fertik said such problems are rare, takedown attempts that go awry can generate considerable unwanted attention. Stuart Neilson, a statistics instructor at a university in Cork, Ireland, claimed on his personal Web site that he was the victim of "academic bullying" by a colleague. After the other professor hired ReputationDefender to try to have the accusations removed, Dr. Neilson rebuffed the firm and posted his exchanges with the company on his site. Those posts received wider attention when they were republished on a blog devoted to faculty discord in academia. "It has merely generated additional publicity," he said...

full article: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB1...d=rss_free