How to Protecting Your Name Online

Why do you feel that it is important manage your online name?

Many people feel that there is no need for managing their online name because they believe one of two things. They feel that they create the content about themselves and they know what’s out there about them. Another is that people feel that they don’t have a social networking account so it isn’t something that they should worry about. The reality is that there is information about many adults and teenagers online that they may not be aware that is there. Increasingly, people will research a person online before they meet them face to face. This occurs both professionally and socially. The issue happens when there is information about you that is malicious, inaccurate, and detrimental to you.


What are some first steps that people can take to protect their name?

One of the first steps that people should take is to perform a Google search on their selves. This will provide a snapshot of what others will see of you and what needs to be rebutted. The next step may sound counter intuitive but you may want to set up accounts on the major social networking sites. This serves two purposes. One is to stake a placeholder on those sites to prevent someone else from impersonating you and it also allows you a platform for your perspective about errors about you. You can also use those accounts to flood the internet with content about you that will serve to bury the unsavory information about you.


Are there any online resources?

Three online resource options come to mind. The first is to take advantage of Google’s Privacy Center, which should make many of the incorrect info about you found during a Google search. You can also mitigate the amount of information that is accessible online about you by ensuring that the privacy settings on your online social networking accounts are currently enabled. Reputation.com is another online resource that people can benefit from. Finally, sites that have erroneous information about will remove the information in many cases, if you simply ask them to remove it.


Websites

http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy/
http://www.reputation.com/