The Internet has changed the meaning of human psychology. Now, every user has some form of online identity either representing social (Facebook, Twitter etc.) or professional (LinkedIn etc.) life. Knowingly or Unknowingly, we post each and every small detail of our life either in the form of text, pictures or are Tagged in someone else profile and even we post-professional details to get some resolution. The way internet is designed, keeps all these details forever.
Have we ever thought sharing of details over the internet may not be fruitful-socially or professionally? We have seen many examples where people have faced issues during background verification for employment and marriage proposal. They have not realized that proposal or employment is rejected due to some past content, revealing sensitive information.
As soon as you realize the information is synchronized across and is made available on various search engines. It’s often seen that false and misleading content posted on the internet affects your business image as well.
A simple Google search on “removing online identity” revel 73,300,000 results. Don’t you think it’s a huge number and many users has raised the same concern-
The question is what we can do? There is a fine line between what to expose and what not... We fail to understand that each and every activity of ours is monitored and may not be useful or may create obstruction/difficulties in future life. There are many mechanisms to protect your online identity
- Manual deletion of details posted by yourself or requesting other users to remove who tagged your detail.
- Google and Yahoo have implemented “Delete URL” functionality for website administrators. This means that if you are a webmaster (or blog owner), you now have the power to stop specific URLS from being indexed (using a Robots.txt file). Non-admins can also take advantage of these tools and request that “private” information be taken down.
- Email administrator, to delete your online details
- Online Tools-There is many sophisticated tools available in the market, which helps the user to search online identity details and remove the same.
- SuicideMachine.org is doing its best to expand possibilities of erasing your entire presence; however, it is a work-in-progress research. Please note, that they are not deleting your account! Their aim is rather to remove your private content and friend relationships than just deactivating/deleting the account
- Reputation.com-Powerful tools to help you monitor and shape your reputation
- Monitor your information online
a. Remove personal information from the web
b. Define your online presence
c. Defend your reputation from negative content
No comments:
Post a Comment