ReputationDefender was recently featured in two articles for TheStreet.com, one of the web’s foremost destinations for personal finance and business news. The first article, Web of Lies? Brands Hire to Secure Reputation, focuses on corporate reputation management and how businesses both small and large are turning to reputation experts to manage their brands online. ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik is quoted in the article.

The second article from The Street gives advice on how to Control Trash Talking With Free Online Tools. The article highlights ReputationDefender’s forthcoming free tool, ReputationAlerts. With ReputationAlerts, users will receive periodic e-mail alerts offering insight into their online reputations as well as updates on exposed personal information such as their age or home address.

As explained in the article from The Street, “Future iterations of the product will include ratings of your social influence and the public’s general perception of you, based on how others portray you on the Web.” Check back to the ReputationDefender Blog often for more information on the official launch of ReputationAlerts.

In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about why you shouldn’t use Facebook while you’re in a jury, how geo-location services could be the next big thing, and what a free market economist thinks of privacy regulations.

–

Juror Removed from Trial Over Facebook Post

A Detroit-area judge removed a juror from a trial after defense attorneys pointed out a comment on the woman’s Facebook wall claiming that the defendant was guilty before the end of the trial. The woman wrote that it was “gonna be fun to tell the defendant they’re guilty.” The offending remark was discovered by the defense attorney’s son who works in his mother’s law office. He was doing Google searches for the members of the jury pool. It is possible that the juror may be found guilty of contempt of court for her actions.

Facebook Tied to Narcissism in Small Psychological Study

Mashable recently reported the results of a small survey of 100 college students, which showed that “young people with narcissistic personality traits were shown to exhibit Facebook activity that was distinctly more self-promotional.” The study specifically cited “About Me” sections that referred to the individual’s intelligence and photos that “were more about displaying the user’s physical attractiveness than about capturing memories with friends.” Given the subjectiveness of these qualifications, it would be a stretch to say that Facebook is for narcissists, but there are some interesting correlations.

Services Help People Disconnect from Social Media

If social media has taught us anything, it’s that people like being connected. But not everyone wants to be connected 24/7. That’s why a number of services have popped up in recent months that allow social media users to mute, block, or manage their Twitter followers and Facebook friends. This article from the Washington Post highlights some of the most popular of these services.

Geo-Location Services Still Await Wide Adoption

With the emergence of Facebook Places, geo-location services looks like they’re set to become the next big thing in social networking. They’re not there yet though. According to Forrester Research, “4 percent of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1 percent use them weekly.” This article from the New York Times discusses some of the obstacles faced by geo-location services, chief among them being the issue of privacy.

Paul Rubin: Ten Fallacies About Web Privacy

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Paul Rubin, an Economics professor from Emory University, discusses “Ten Fallacies About Web Privacy.” Rubin approaches the subject from a free market perspective, arguing that overly stringent privacy regulations are a detriment to the economy and hurt consumers. It is an argument that we have heard before, and we don’t entirely agree with, but Rubin argues his points well and the op-ed is definitely worth reading.

In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about the “Anti-Facebook,” how Google is ready to monetize real-time search, and Apple’s creepy predictions for future iPhone technology.

–

Diaspora to Launch on September 15th

The founders of Diaspora, or the so-called “Anti-Facebook,” have set September 15th as the launch date for their new social networking website. Diaspora was started by four New York University students in response to anger and unrest over Facebook perceived privacy problems. According to Wired, the Diaspora project aims to “create a social network that puts users in charge of their own data” The founders themselves describe Diaspora as a “privacy-aware, personally controlled, do-it-all, open source social network.” Whether or not Diaspora can make any kind of dent into Facebook’s massive userbase remains to be seen, but it certainly demonstrates that privacy is not an afterthought when it comes to social media.

Google Expands Real-Time Search

Google has expanded its real-time search capabilities yet again. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has developed a new service called Google Realtime Search, which “can be used separately from the company’s main search engine to help people find the latest Web conversations on regional and global hot topics.” Google, along with rival search engine Microsoft Bing, has been investing heavily into real-time search throughout the past year, striking search deals with both Twitter and Facebook. Google Realtime Search will make it easier for Google to place ads in real-time search content.

Major Increase in 50 and Up Social Media Users

According to new research from the Pew Research Center, “between April 2009 and May, the percentage of internet users 50 and up who said they use social-networking sites has risen from 22 percent to 42 percent.” This increase is significantly higher than the comparable increase for the 18-29 year old demographic (a mere 13%). With an increased influx in older users, including parents and grandparents, many younger social media users have had to learn how to manage their digital identities more scrupulously.

Apple’s Disturbingly Orwellian Patent Applications

Apple is known for pushing the boundaries when it comes to consumer technologies, but are their latest patent applications predicting a far too Orwellian future? This column from Evan Schuman at CBS News discusses Apple’s recent patent applications, which discuss, among other things, the iPhone’s ability to “use a consumer’s heart rhythms to not only confirm that person’s identity but analyze vibrations to determine the kind of transportation that person is likely using.”

Another patent application talks about automatically using the camera to “take a plurality of photographs of the surroundings of the electronic device” in order to “identify distinguishing landmarks in the photographs and determine the location of each photograph based on the identified distinguishing landmarks.” Even creepier, “The photograph can be taken without a flash, any noise or any indication that a picture is being taken to prevent the current user from knowing he is being photographed.” Hopefully, by the time Apple’s technology actually evolves to this complexity, consumer privacy laws will be strong enough to protect users.

ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik recently began contributing to the Harvard Business Review. In his first article, Fertik offered 15 Hyper-Practical Tips on Starting Your Own Company. In his second contribution to the publication, the Harvard Law School graduate shares tips on effectively managing workers who are older and have more experience.

Check out portions from some of Michael’s tips below.

–

Load them up on context. Even more than with other colleagues, you should over-communicate your company vision, industry objectives, and company-wide targets. This should be the number-one focus from the first recruiting day and should remain so for the duration of your relationship.

Avoid getting too granular. The excellent senior manager will take it upon herself to apply the context you provide to the mission with which you have charged her. Expect as much, and she will feel respected and fired up.

Let them know that you are working long and hard. Even accomplished, self-motivated senior colleagues won’t work harder than you will for very long. Send emails early and late. Invite meetings on weekends and at odd hours. Be in the office or online all the time…Expect them to be working long and hard, whenever it is, and make sure you are always doing more than they are.

–

For the complete versions of the above tips, as well as many more useful suggestions for managing older managers, check out Michael’s full article at the Harvard Business Review. And keep your eyes open for more articles from Michael Fertik in the future.

In today’s Quick Hits, we learn what privacy harm means, how Paris police feel about Google Street View, and the meaning behind the heavily encoded texting language of teens.

–

Free iPad Scams Hit Facebook and Twitter

Twitter and Facebook have both become inundated in recent weeks by scammers promising free iPads to users. Once a scammer gains access to a user’s social media account, they send out messages to user’s friends containing a link to better-gifts.net. According to Reuters, “that Web site asks for personal information, and then directs the user to a variety of promotional offers from legitimate companies such as Netfilx, the Doubleday Book Club, and Columbia House DVD.Online marketing programs pay cash for Web traffic, and hackers have found that by phishing victims and then using that information to break into legitimate Twitter and Facebook accounts, they can earn money.”

NYT Tech Talk Podcast: Fighting Over the Facebook Movie

In this week’s New York Times Tech Talk Podcast, part of the show focuses on The Social Network, the allegedly fictionalized upcoming movie about Mark Zuckerberg and the origins of Facebook. The show specifically touches on Facebook’s vehement disagreements with the producers of the film over its subject matter and curious interpretation of Facebook’s early history.

Internet Expert Ryan Calo Explains “Privacy Harm”

In a Q&A for the Wall Street Journal, Ryan Calo, senior research fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University Law School, attempts to define “Privacy Harm,” or what constitutes a harmful invasion of privacy versus something that is merely distasteful. In his thoughtful responses, Calo mentions subjective privacy harm versus objective privacy harm and the difference between a “privacy violation” and a “privacy harm.”

Google Street View Car Stopped and Searched in France

Google is operating Street View cars in France again, but not without a healthy bit of scrutiny. From BusinessWeek: “A car used by Google Inc. to collect data for its Street View mapping service was stopped and searched yesterday near Paris, less than a week after France’s privacy regulator criticized the company.The inspection was a result of Google resuming photographing French streets before officials decided whether the company complied with orders to limit Street View’s data collection, said Yann Padova, secretary general of the National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties.”

Understanding Teen Texting

Kids and teens go to great lengths to hide their digital conversations from their parents. This article from CNN discusses some of the common Internet lingo that teens use when texting or chatting with friends and offers a handful of resources for parents to learn more about this ever-evolving and complex shorthand web language.