Last week, we shared the story of a Pennsylvania school teacher who was suspended for 30 days without pay over a Facebook picture of her with a stripper at a bridal shower party. The twist in the case is that the teacher did not post the picture to Facebook herself. Rather, it was posted to Facebook by another party guest. In determining the teacher’s punishment, the school board was at odds over whether she could be held accountable for something that someone else shared, but ultimately decided on the 30-day suspension.

Naturally, the fairness of this decision has been called into question. If the teacher was doing something in her spare time that didn’t involve students and was perfectly legal, why should she get in trouble for her actions? According to the Associated Press, the American Civil Liberties Union is asking these same questions, and has taken an interest in the case.

It will be interesting to see what happens as more attention is brought to this case. Will the school board rescind its punishment? Considering that the teacher was suspended, rather than fired, it’ll probably just fall by the wayside. Nevertheless, it shows that the issue of personal privacy online is one that is still evolving, and that you must always be careful about how you’re presenting yourself online.

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We hope you had a good Data Privacy Day yesterday, because we certainly did. ReputationDefender Founder and CEO Michael Fertik traveled to Washington D.C. to serve as the keynote speaker for a Microsoft-sponsored discussion on Internet privacy hosted by the Future of Privacy Forum. The event yielded some great discussion, which we hope to share in greater detail on the ReputationDefender Blog later today.

In the meantime, let’s get caught up on what the world of reputation management, Internet privacy, and social media is talking about today.

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Andy Beal Shares the Financial Dangers of Social Media

Andy Beal, a marketing expert and founder of the social media monitoring service Trackur, talks with Yahoo about the financial dangers of social media. He cites three broad examples: losing employment because of social media, the ability for creditors to track you down online, and the potential for social media-based scams. It’s a good post that definitely touches on the importance of proactively managing your image online.

Google’s Five Privacy Principles Mean What Exactly?

An article from Lora Bentley talks about how Google’s Five Privacy Principles are too vague to offer any real value to consumers. Lora’s insight and analysis is reminiscent of ReputationDefender Chief Privacy Officer Dave Thompson’s recent article on the same subject. One line in particular sums up Lora’s position nicely: “If privacy principles do nothing but leave users with the feeling they’re missing something, what good are they?” Hear, hear!

Google Social Search Severely Lacking Without Facebook

According to this article from PC World, the effectiveness of Google’s recently released public beta version of Social Search is significantly less useful than it could be because the vast majority of information on Facebook is not publicly searchable. So long as Facebook users display an understanding and desire to not share their content online, Google Social Search will be missing out on 350 million users’ worth of possible search information.

35% of Facebook Users Customized Privacy Settings After Switch

According to Facebook Director of Public Policy Tim Sparapani, speaking at a Federal Trade Commission round table at the UC Berkeley School of Law, 35% of Facebook users customized their privacy settings after Facebook made their policy shift in December. Because the industry average for people adjusting their settings is between 5% and 10%, this is being hailed by Facebook as proof that their efforts to give people more control have worked. In reality, this is probably a mixed blessing for Facebook. Yes, more people have taken action to secure their profiles, but in doing so they have also limited Facebook’s aims of becoming a truly public (read: open to indexing) social network.

Watch Out Social Media World, the European Union is Coming

Facebook, MySpace,  Twitter, and other social media sites may have to significantly alter their privacy policies in response to forthcoming legal changes from the European Union. According to EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, people should have the right “to say no…whenever they want” when it comes to data mining. Her position is that Internet companies have been too reactionary, only adjusting their policies when they have been criticized, when instead they should focus on delivering privacy value from the outset. If the EU really comes down hard on these Internet companies, it could make Facebook’s quarrel with Canada seem minor.

Drunk Driver Gets Jail Time Over Facebook Photo

Ars Technica covers the story of a teenage girl whose irresponsible behavior online has led to some significant legal problems offline. According to the story, the girl was the driver in a drunk driving accident that killed her passenger. After going to court, she pled guilty to negligent homicide, but was being charged as a youth. However, a month after the ruling, the girl went on vacation and promptly shared a photo on Facebook with a caption that said “Drunk in Florida.” The judge did not find her actions amusing and declared that she “hadn’t earned” youthful offender status, which means she is now facing six months in jail and five years probation.

Hacked Twitter Accounts Worth Thousands on the Black Market

This informative PC World article details the black market value of a stolen twitter account. From the article, “According to researchers at Kaspersky Lab, cybercriminals are trying to sell hacked Twitter user names and passwords on-line for hundreds of dollars…Bestuzhev said that one Twitter account, with just over 320 followers, was offered at $1,000 in an underground hacker forum.” Call me crazy, but I think the underground economy of hackers is fascinating, as long as it’s not your data they’re dealing of course. How much do you think your Twitter account could be worth to a hacker?

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For many members of Generation Y, making their way through high school, getting into a good college, or finding that first job is tough enough, so adding one more to-do item to their lists seems a bit burdensome. However, managing online reputations is just as important for those under 30 as it is for those over 30. Plus, keeping a clean online history or polishing up one’s online footprint can only help land that first job or gain acceptance into college choice number one.

A recent University of Massachusetts Dartmouth study revealed that 23 percent of college admissions offices use search engines like Google to research students before even considering them as acceptable candidates. Of those same offices polled, 17 percent admitted to using social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to vet potential students while another survey from UMass Dartmouth shows that 53 percent of Inc. 500 companies reported using a Google search and/or some kind of review of MySpace and Facebook as part of the hiring process.

Most recently a Data Privacy Day survey sponsored by Microsoft showed even more dire numbers, saying that 70 percent of hiring managers in the US have claimed to reject candidates based on what they found. Considering the ramifications behind a poorly managed reputation, and the proclivity of Gen Y to share their lives freely, we thought it would be a good idea to offer some advice on reputation management for college students and recent grads.

On Blogging and Social Media: As one journalist puts it, “imagine that your mother is reading every post you write and watching every move you make.  By the way, she already is.” Keeping your digital nose clean begins with a bit of common sense. Posting distasteful or even questionable items to the Internet can have negative results a little ways down the road or even a long ways down the road so keep that in mind with everything you post. Even harder is making sure other people don’t post items of you you’d rather not have online – not an easy thing to correct. A 2006 USA Today article gives just a few examples of high school and college students who paid the price when their online reputations didn’t turn up squeaky clean. In the four years since then, social media use has become even more prevalent, with Facebook tallying more than 350 million users and Twitter becoming a worldwide phenomena.

An important rule to keep in mind is that Facebook, MySpace, blogs, message boards, and other online tools aren’t private. Parents should relay this message to their children and be conscious of what their children are doing online. Check out Project PRO: Privacy & Reputation Online, a collaborative effort between the American School Counselor Association and Reputation Defender, for tips and ideas on keeping children and adolescents safe online. Without professional help, cleaning up many items that have been posted is a difficult task.

On Tweeting Safely: With Twitter has come a whole new method of sullying one’s online reputation. Adhering to a few simple rules can keep personal information from getting out and keeping Gen Y Tweeters safe. For starters, never give out personal information, including your full name, address, phone numbers, or passwords. Additionally, keep profile information brief and avoid responding to users that you don’t know. Also consider every tweet you send out, including tweets that identify where you are, where you’re heading, or photos where you’re easily recognizable, as tweets can remain visible for many years. Read more tips on safe Twitter use here.

On Finding a Job: We’ve reported plenty on using tools like LinkedIn and Facebook to create professional online resumes, as well as how to drive traffic to these profiles once they’re built. However many Gen Y’ers are still catching on to the concept of using devices like LinkedIn and Facebook, according to an article on Recruitingfly.com.

Take our advice – using these tools (in particular using them in a professional manner, as with Facebook) can usually only help your chances, not hinder them. Furthermore, putting the web address to your LinkedIn profile on a hardcopy of your resume isn’t a bad idea – it provides another method for potential employers to do their homework on you and lets them know you’re tech savvy.

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Happy International Data Privacy Day! Celebrate with a mid-morning cup of coffee and the latest in reputation management, Internet privacy, and social media news.

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It’s Data Privacy Day, Why Aren’t Big Companies Doing Anything About It?

Ian Douglas of the UK’s Telegraph wonders about Data Privacy Day and why, despite the fact that many major companies have acknowledged it, Google is the only company to come out with any concrete public declaration of their privacy principles. By the way, those Google privacy principles aren’t all they’re cracked up to me. Check out ReputationDefender Chief Privacy Officer Dave Thompson’s great blog post on why Google’s privacy principles fall short.

Canada v. Facebook: Round Two

Facebook is facing a second investigation from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada related to the privacy settings changes the site initiated in December. Interestingly, these changes came about in part over an initial investigation from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner. Is Canada the most privacy-conscious country in the world, or what?

More Updates on the Massachusetts Cyberbullying Suicide

The Good Morning America website did some follow-up reporting on the suicide of 15-year-old Massachusetts teen, Phoebe Prince. At a meeting, parents were critical of school administrators for not working harder to identify the bullying, but, in reality, how much could the school have done if the majority of the bullying was done online? This story serves as another sad reminder that parents must take proactive steps to protect children from harm online and help them become responsible web citizens.

Reply by E-Mail Feature Leads to Facebook Comment Spoofing

I knew there would be problems when Facebook unveiled its latest reply by e-mail feature, but I thought it would be a user issue, not a technical one. According to security group, F-Secure, once a conversation has started, anyone can use the Reply To address from any e-mail account to join the discussion. The third-party messages will appear as if they are posted by the individual who started the thread. Obviously, this is a major loophole and one that could be easily exploited by spammers. F-Secure is also the group that uncovered the Facebook loophole that allows private Facebook photos to be shared using a public link. Keep up the good work guys.

Are Government Regulators Missing the Big Picture About Privacy?

John M. Simpson, a consumer advocate with Consumer Watchdog, has a well-written discussion piece for the San Francisco Chronicle. In it, Simpson wonders why the FTC is focusing on technological solutions to privacy concerns rather than addressing the overall issue, which is control. We want to be able to say yes or no when it comes to behavioral advertising, and it’s as simple as that.

Simpson sums up his point by saying, “Murder is illegal. We don’t have one law against killing someone with a gun and a different one against killing him with a knife. Similarly, we don’t care what technology was used to spy on us; we just want to be able to say no.”

Is Facial Recognition Technology Becoming Mainstream?

This article from Wired talks about facial recognition technology and how Tampa, Florida police have been using it to catch criminals for almost 10 years. Obviously, this is a great concern to civil liberties groups, but it’s becoming a bigger issue thanks to the widespread adoption of smartphones and the advance of facial recognition technology. Suddenly, the thought of being able to snap a picture of someone walking down the street and learn who they are in a few seconds doesn’t seem like science-fiction anymore.

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Did you know that tomorrow, January 28th, is National Data Privacy Day? It’s true! Data Privacy Day is a time for web users the world over to consider issues related information privacy online and ask questions about how they can help make the Internet a safer and more secure place.

Here at ReputationDefender, CEO Michael Fertik is showing our leadership in the area of Internet privacy by serving as the keynote speaker for a special Data Privacy Day event sponsored by Microsoft and hosted by the Future of Privacy Forum. The Future of Privacy Forum is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that seeks to advance responsible data practices.

Joining Michael for the event will be a host of Internet experts, including:

Marsali Hancock, President of the Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe)

Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at The CATO Institute

Brendon Lynch, Senior Director of Privacy Strategy for Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group

Nat Wood, Assistant Director of Consumer & Business Education for the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection

Jules Polotnesky, Co-chair and Director of the Future of Privacy Forum

If you live or work in the Washington, D.C. area, we encourage you to attend the discussion and offer your own perspective on Internet privacy and consumer protection issues. The event will run from 10:00am-1:00pm at the Newseum – Knight Conference Center at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest in Washington, D.C.

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