Online Reputation
Today two things people should concern themselves about is their online profile and online reputation. Both to a large extent can be controlled by you. However, at times, the information you might post may be shared by others and then it is out of your control and there may be little to nothing you can do about it once it is in the “wild.”
Your "online profile" is the sum of online content about you that you've created and content about you created by others. Items include: emails, videos, posts on social networks, someone posting a picture or comments about you on a social network or website, credit, financial and medical information.
Your "online reputation" is the image created of you through information you or others shared online in blogs, posts, pictures, tweets and videos. Not all fame is good!
Do you have control of what is posted?
You may have little control of what people post about you online. May times people will use anonymity to post stuff about people they don’t like. This may make it very difficult to get the information removed. Websites like collegeabc.com allowed student to post anything about anyone anonymously.
There are personal ramifications for this. For example, employers are increasingly using social media for background checks. Insurance companies use social media to look for fraud. Spies use social media to look for informants. Terrorists are using it to find targets such as the family members of military personnel.
The consequences can be devastating to the people who become embarrassed by what is posted about them online. Beyond that, what happens online can spill over into real life. People have committed suicide over cyber bulling or embarrassing videos. People have even physical attacked or killed people over event that have happened online. One teenager had nude pictures of his girlfriend, also a minor, on his phone and was arrested for child pornography.
What can you do? Watch what you post online and search to see what is out there on you. Do what you can to keep a clean reputation by limiting or being very careful what you post about yourself.
