Web-savvy employers and universities are increasingly employing a new tactic to screen applicants: conducting online research to unearth photos, blog entries, or other "digital dirt" you might prefer to keep private.
Indeed, companies are springing up to dig up Internet postings that might be of interest to employers, government agencies, or whoever else might be interested. For instance, you can view Web pages that were modified months or even years ago through the Internet Archive, also known as the Wayback Machine, at http://www.archive.org.
But that doesn't mean you can't obscure your digital trail. While I normally suggest that anyone interested in privacy avoid posting information to the Internet about themselves, if data you don't want others to see is already there, here are a few suggestions on how to cope:
Delete, delete, delete. Start by deleting any photo, personal profile, or personal description on any social networking or dating Web site that is even mildly embarrassing. For instance, I suspect Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google founders, might prefer not to have this photo of him in drag immortalized. While Sergey may be wealthy enough not to care, you may not be.
Unfortunately, most social networking sites create archives in which your photos may reside permanently, even if you delete them from your profile. Someone with a link to the original photo—or using the Internet Archive—might be able to find it.
Do a search of yourself on Google. Look for any links back to potentially incriminating or embarrassing posts or photos. Unfortunately, Google won't remove content itself, but merely will refer you to the Webmaster posting the content. If you can't figure out who's in charge of a Web site, search for the owner at www.whois.net. Contact the owner of the site and ask that comments by or about you be deleted. In most cases the owner has no obligation to remove the content, but it may do so if you persist or threaten legal action.
Set up a Google alert for yourself. You'll receive a daily e-mail update of the latest updates of whatever topic—yourself in this case—that you choose. This is a great way to monitor what others are saying about you online.
Create favorable content about yourself. You can do this in many ways. For instance, create a professional Web site and/or professional blog. For blogs, Wordpress, LiveJournal and TypePad all have high Google page ranks. You can also create a Wikipedia entry for yourself. To further insure these sites are at the top of any Google search of your name, use title tags and headers to highlight information about you that you want people to see. Don't forget to create a Google profile that contains the information about yourself you wish to highlight. You can also leave comments on blogs and Web sites you respect under your own name.
Use social networking sites intelligently. It's almost impossible to permanently eliminate content you post to social networking sites, even if you unsubscribe. However, you can also use these sites to your advantage, especially if you're setting up a profile for the first time. Web sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Twitter are a good place to begin. You don't even need to use these sites. Just create a profile and add the content you want people to see. Web sites that let you create a unique link with your name in it are especially useful (e.g., LinkedIn). Those pages will show up ahead of most other sites that might contain content you don't want others to view.
Use protection. There's no such thing as an Internet condom, but you can hire companies that will contact sites that have published material pertinent to your character. One that has good reviews—although I haven't used it personally—is http://www.trackur.com.
Just don't forget that once you've posted something on the Internet, it's very difficult to permanently delete it. So before you hit the "post" button, be absolutely certain that whatever you're about to send into cyberspace belongs there.
Copyright © 2009 by Mark Nestmann
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