Entries from December 2009 ↓

Here at ReputationDefender, we don’t encourage people to stop using the web. We help them figure out how to use the web responsibly to build their personal brand and control their reputation online. However, even we recognize that some people just can’t handle living the digital life. If you’re an Internet addict, or you can’t stop yourself from oversharing online, maybe the right thing for you to do is take a break from the web.

Unfortunately, if you’re really tuned into the web, it can take a long time to close all of your accounts. What’s more, you may find yourself resisting the urge to hit that delete button at the last second. If this is the case, then there’s a new solution for you: the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine.

According to TechCrunch, the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine will permanently and irrevocably delete all of your log-in credentials and activity for a variety of social networking websites.

From the post:

Just put in your credentials for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or LinkedIn and it will delete all your friends and messages, and change your username, password, and photo so that you cannot log back in.

[...]

The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine runs a python script which launches a browser session and automates the process of disconnecting from these social networks (here is a video showing how this works with Twitter). You can even watch the virtual suicide in progress via a Flash app which shows it as a remote desktop session. You can watch your online life pass away one message at a time.

The TechCrunch article goes on to point out that because the process involves an automated script and third-party access to your account, it is more than likely in violation of many websites’ terms and conditions.

In all honesty, we don’t think it’s a very good idea to completely sever your ties with your online life. Furthermore, if you’re going to do so, we don’t recommend ceding control of the process to a third-party application. However, there is something to be said for the creativity of Moddr in recognizing the frustration that comes with using Web 2.0 and creating an application to address it.

Is the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine something that you would find useful?

As painful as it is for some to admit, living in the digital age practically requires that you share some things online. We keep our friends and family close through Facebook, we show off our resume on LinkedIn, and we’re never more than a minute away from our e-mail thanks to the invention of the Blackberry and the iPhone. If you share in moderation, and are careful about not sharing important information, you can effectively build your personal brand and protect yourself from online attacks.

However, if you don’t consider what you’re posting online, or you overshare, you could be setting yourself up for all kinds of digital drama. In a recent article for the Financial Times, David Gelles explores the problem of oversharing, quoting numerous experts in Internet privacy and reputation management, including ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik.

From the article:

What began with blogging and evolved into social networking has transformed the way people relate to one another, says Cameron Marlow, a data scientist at Facebook who earned his PhD at the ­Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“The social norms have slowly been changing,” he says. “A few people found value early on in sharing a lot of information, and slowly society has shaped around this behaviour.”

Now, instead of communicating regularly with one’s closest associates and occasionally making contact with acquaintances, users of social networks maintain peripheral awareness of a much broader circle of contacts.

[...]

But social networks can prove ruinous to individual lives. “The internet is a daily part of our lives, an integral need. You can reconnect in a way you couldn’t before,” says Kimberly Young, director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery in Bradford, Pennsylvania. “At the same time it’s created a dependency. People are using this technology to the point where they’re forgetting social skills.”

Beyond problems of time management, oversharing can land users in serious trouble. The story of how an errant Facebook post cost a naive worker her job has become a contemporary parable. More serious concerns, such as phishing, stalking and identity theft, are also made easier by the amount of personal information that is publicly available on these sites.

“The tools for self-publication are rapidly proliferating, but understanding of the consequences is lagging,” says Michael Fertik, chief executive of Reputation Defender, a company that helps users guard against these threats and restore online personas that have been tarnished. “Yes, it’s a new day in tolerance levels, but it’s a new year in unintended consequences.”

The very existence of companies such as Reputation Defender point to an uncomfortable reality. While people may have more control over their online identities by curating their profiles to be just so, more sharing also means less control. Hastily uploaded images can come back to haunt. Posts meant only for friends can be widely redistributed.

In 2010 and beyond, the individuals who find the most success will be those who strike the right balance between promoting their personal brand online, while actively protecting it against threats. For more information on how ReputationDefender can help you achieve this balance, feel free to contact one of our Online Reptuation Management consultants today.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, which is why, instead of recapping 2009 myself, I’m going to share this great video from Rob Cottingham, creator of the popular web comic Noise to Signal.

The eight-minute video touches on most of the important social media news of 2009, including a variety of news that we’ve covered here at the ReputationDefender Blog. For example, Rob touches on Facebook’s TOS change (and subsequent backtracking), the election of Barack Obama (America’s first “Internet” president), and the Iran election crisis (which turned Twitter green, before everyone lost interest because of Michael Jackson’s death).

Check out the video below. If you see anything that Rob missed, feel free to leave a comment on this post.

During the Great Depression, one criminal caught the attention of the world like no other before him. I’m talking of course about the infamous bank robber, John Dillinger. Over the course of his criminal career, Dillinger robbed at least two dozen banks and four police stations. He also escaped from prison…twice.

By the time he was gunned down in the alley of Chicago’s Biograph Theater at age 31, Dillinger had captured the imagination of the public and secured a legacy that would last for decades. (Not everyone gets to have Johnny Depp play them in a feature film.) Why do I bring up John Dillinger? Because, I believe that we may have our very own Dillinger for the digital age in the form of British fugitive Craig Lynch. If you are unfamiliar with Lynch, allow me to catch you up.

28-year-old Craig Lynch escaped from Hollesley Bay Prison in southern England three months ago. Lynch was being held at the minimum-security facility on charges of assault. Since escaping, however, Lynch has not followed the typical m.o. of a man on the run. Rather than laying low, Lynch carried on his life like normal: visiting old friends, going out to restaurants and bars, and updating his Facebook profile with regularity. One would think that publicly sharing updates online about where he was would have gotten him caught, but, to the contrary, Lynch has been able to evade police with apparent ease.

When the news broke that Lynch was a prison escapee, rather than closing down his Facebook profile, Lynch began to use it to mock his pursuers, sharing images of him enjoying the “free life” and hurling profanity-laced insults at police. As news of Lynch’s Facebook exploits began spreading, the fugitive turned into an unlikely web celebrity. At last count, Lynch’s Facebook fan page has over 26,000 fans from all over the world. While a number of comments on the page express disgust for Lynch and his arrogant taunts, a surprisingly large number of Facebook users are openly rooting for him.

It shouldn’t be surprising that, despite his lawless behavior, Lynch has caught the attention of the public. For some reason, as a culture, we have always romanticized individuals who fight against authority, even if they most often happen to be criminals. The key to Lynch’s popularity, however, lies in the transformative power of social media. In the days of old media, Lynch would have been a mugshot on the evening news and nothing more. Thanks to social networking tools, like Facebook, he is able to reach out directly to the public and augment how the world perceives him. In a bizarre and somewhat disturbing way, Craig Lynch is engaging in a very successful form of personal branding.

Facebook has already said that it will help law enforcement in tracking Lynch down, which is in keeping with the site’s terms and conditions (“We may disclose information pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law.”) However, as explained in this article at Media Bistro, Facebook representatives have been asked to not reveal how they are involved in the investigation.

At some point soon, I would imagine Lynch will be caught. I just find it hard to beleive that he won’t slip into some kind of pattern that police will be able to detect. That being said, while I abhor Lynch’s actions, it is pretty amazing that he hasn’t been captured yet. It would seem that, thus far, he has figured out how to to lead a public life on Facebook without interrupting his private life.

According to a new report from McAfee Labs, Facebook and Twitter should prepare for some serious security threats in 2010. Citing each company’s considerable growth in 2009, McAfee warns that social networking sites will “face more sophisticated threats” and that “explosion of applications on Facebook and other services will be an ideal vector for cybercriminals, who will take advantage of friends trusting friends to click links they might otherwise treat cautiously.” Furthermore, the report explores how cybercriminals are becoming more selective in their attacks, picking individuals and corporations based on the information that is already accessible about them online.

Here are some of McAfee’s additional findings.

• HTML 5 will blur the line between desktop and online applications. This, along with the release of
Google Chrome OS, will create another opportunity for malware writers to prey on users.
• Email attachments have delivered malware for years, yet the increasing number of attacks targeted
at corporations, journalists, and individual users often fool them into downloading Trojans and
other malware.
• Cybercriminals have long picked on Microsoft products due to their popularity. In 2010, we anticipate
Adobe software, especially Acrobat Reader and Flash, will take the top spot.
• Banking Trojans will become more clever, sometimes interrupting a legitimate transaction to make an
unauthorized withdrawal.
• Botnets are the leading infrastructure for cybercriminals, used for actions from spamming to identity
theft. Recent successes in shutting down botnets will force their controllers to switch to alternate, less
vulnerable methods of command, including peer-to-peer setups.
• In spite of the worldwide scope of botnets, we anticipate even more successes in the fight against all
forms of cybercrime in 2010.

To download the report in PDF form, check out the following link: McAfee Labs Report: Internet Security Threats 2010.To help protect yourself from falling victim to these threats, consider adopting our approved Online Reputation Management and Internet Privacy New Year’s Resolutions.