Sorry, Nobody's Saving You From Those Embarrassing Party Pics Online

from the nice-thought-though dept

Tue, Nov 7th 2006 12:08pm — Joseph Weisenthal

These days, it's pretty common for people to be worried about what kind of information will turn up about them on a Google search, particularly when they're applying for a job. Of course, where there's a problem, there's a business opportunity. One company is launching a service that promises to search out, and scrub out any embarrasing information that you might have online. Like a company that will monitor your credit score for you, for a monthly fee, the company will actively monitor the web for your personal information. And if it finds it, it will confront the site where it's hosted and seek to have it taken down. Of course, there's no guarantee that a site's proprietor will be willing to take down the offending material particularly when they have no obligation to do so. In fact, more often than not, the company will probably be told to take a hike. Sure, they can throw an intimidating cease and desist letter out there, but for the nominal amount they charge, don't expect them to try much harder than that.

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13 Comments

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neum, 7 Nov 2006 @ 12:17pm

One ray of light,
At least the company doesn't guarantee results and refunds the $30 if they can't get the offending content down. Still sounds like they are using classic legal bullying. That sort of thing should be illegal. I wouldn't be surprised if they worked the DMCA takedown clause into the legal nasty grams...
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dorpus, 7 Nov 2006 @ 12:31pm

Impermanence
Hard drives do fail over time, and archived data does accumulate errors over time -- even on "working" drives. Databases do tend to lose their oldest, lowest-priority data through operator negligence.

When I look at the "complete" usenet archives, I see only a small fraction of the posts from 10 years ago. There are many articles that can't be found, and seem to be lost forever.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2006 @ 1:09pm

Re: Impermanence
A sphincter says what?
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2006 @ 1:23pm

Re: Re: Impermanence
What?
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Anonymous Cow, 7 Nov 2006 @ 1:37pm

reality
Then a wave of reality hits, and people realize that the truthful information found online can easily be found simply by asking previous employers. Most of what you would want to hide from a prospective employer was probably put there by yourself anyway.

Its a lesson some people learn, that actions do have reactions, and the more so when they're stupid.
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Anonymity is a good thing, 7 Nov 2006 @ 1:50pm

Learn to act right
Or at least do not publish your bad behaviours on the world wide web. You could also think about the attitude of the possible employer. If they are that up tight you probably won't stay there long any way.

Bottom line is don't publish the dumb stuff.
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Annoying Bastard, 7 Nov 2006 @ 2:06pm

Dorpus...
It is most unfortunate that you weren't lost along with those usenet posts of old.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2006 @ 2:46pm

Re: reality
you can only say so much when you're called in reference to a former employees application. There are legal ramifications to saying pretty much anything but the bare essentials.
So it would seem your "wave of reality" is little more than :
hire date
fire date
last job held
reason for term. (and you can't elaborate on it)
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2006 @ 2:52pm

Re: Re: reality
Alias's are ur friend.
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Sphincter, 7 Nov 2006 @ 3:02pm

Re: Re: Impermanence
Who?
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DeathToMyspace, 7 Nov 2006 @ 6:51pm

social networking sites are for egotistical losers... if some worthless schmuck wants to put pictures of their self doing illegal or otherwise stupid shit online under their real name then let the worthless scum that they are get what's coming to them. i feel no remorse for any of these sad excuses for human beings. frankly, they should all go kill themselves. and remember, slit the wrists with a T ....
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security, 7 Nov 2006 @ 7:30pm

Web.archive.org
Depending on the info - it could also remain on the Internet Archive.

Those Webmaster's themselves, would have to request removal.
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from the Computer, 8 Nov 2006 @ 3:58pm

15 minutes of fame can last a lifetime
you funny humans and your lust for 15 minutes of fame...0011011011000
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