Red-Faced On The Web

Larry Magid Reports On How To Avoid Online Embarrassment

(CBS)  Miss New Jersey, Amy Polumbo, isn't the first person to be embarrassed as a result of "private" digital photos that went public. It's happening at an increasing rate. And while the 22-year-old beauty queen didn't lose her crown over the incident, others have lost their jobs, been denied employment and have even gotten in trouble with the law or school officials as a result of online postings.

A famous cartoon from the New Yorker shows a dog sitting in front of a computer telling another dog: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." But now, thanks to the Internet, everyone knows everything about you. Or at least they might be able to find out.

Online reputations are increasingly important in the workplace, in school, and even in social life. Search engines make it easy to find information about most anyone, especially if that person has been active online.

With the rise of social networking sites, more information is available than ever before. Whether it's someone you want to date, a potential employer, or a college admissions counselor, if there's information out there about you and they want to find it, chances are that they can.

Once something is posted online, it can be accessible forever. What was cool, funny, or innocuous at age 16 or 18 could prove embarrassing or even damaging when you're 24 or 42. Even if you delete something, anything you post could be "cached" or stored by search engines. The Web site archive.org operates the "way back machine" that resurrects old versions of Web sites, even if content has changed or been removed.

If you don't want to share information with the world, don't put it on a public Web site. If it's something that you absolutely don't want to share, don't even post it on a private profile or send it via e-mail.

In addition to what you post, be aware of what others are posting about you. On ConnectSafely.org, a social networking safety site I help operate, a distraught husband and father recently posted that he was being publicly humiliated in an online profile maintained by a bitter former girlfriend.

Unfortunately, there isn't much he can do about it. Though rude and mean-spirited, the content posted by his ex appears to be constitutionally-protected free speech. Because it doesn't violate the terms of service, the social networking company that hosts the profile will not take it down.

In some situations, you can get a social networking site to remove information about you - if it is libelous, lewd, racist, or otherwise in violation of the company's terms of service or the law. If you feel you are being victimized on a social networking site, report it to that company's abuse department. Feel free to post a notice on ConnectSafely.org, so that staff can investigate and try to remedy the situation.

What is posted by you, or about you, can affect your future employment prospects. Dayna Romanick, an Austin, Texas-based recruiter for Manpower, an employment agency, says that she works with employers "who check (social networking) sites, especially for management and upper level candidates."

What they find, she says, can affect whether they make an offer. "If there is anything that could reflect less than positively on their company they will decline those candidates," said Romanick, adding that some employers also searched video sites for material by or about job seekers.

[michellem99-2009]

I am aware of the power of the word. But I have no control over someone in the public that I don't know or awsre snapping photos of me as I am legally blind and can't see them. I am 52. Don't we have freedom to have our say and the constution gives us that right.

[octavianfdlr]

This is Science?

[hypnotoad72]

People can change.

And if we had 'freedom of speech', any flapdoodle said on internet forums would have no relevance whatsoever. As too many people already say, with the internet one has to take anything with a grain of salt. Maybe people, employers or otherwise, shouldn't treat gossip sites as they would the Bible*. :-)


* Assuming these people believe in it, but that's none of my business and I'm not going to pry unless anybody asks.

[hypnotoad72]

People can change.

And if we had 'freedom of speech', any flapdoodle said on internet forums would have no relevance whatsoever. As too many people already say, with the internet one has to take anything with a grain of salt. Maybe people, employers or otherwise, shouldn't treat gossip sites as they would the Bible*. :-)


* Assuming these people believe in it, but that's none of my business and I'm not going to pry unless anybody asks.

[shoujoboy-2009]

Harmless is the word. Seriously if I go for a job or try to get a date when I'm 35 and something I said or searched when I was 21 comes into the conversation, I don't want to talk to you in the first place. People change and drudging up pointless tidbits from the past is pointless and just plain stupid. You know I might see the Mountain Dew ferret commercial on Youtube and comment how it is "Uber 1337" now and I seriously don't think I'll be embarassed when I'm 40.