Hiding Your Digital Past

Why Does The Past Matter? The Internet is written in Permanent Ink

For those of us with multiple years of internet experience that goes beyond simply using an alias on a video game or message board, even if we were using things like one of the best vpn for gaming options to help us stay protected online, there are going to be echoes of our past when our names get looked up.

This is an inevitable result of simply needing to have some type of accountability and unfortunately this can result in your name not looking as great as it could when you get looked up.

If you’ve used your information on any of the following platforms, chances are there’s something out there on you right now.

• Message boards

• Video games

• Social media

• Publications

• Blogs

• Projects that were adapted to an online layout

With us no longer in the first decade of the new millennium, we are now seeing people who have been on the internet for over 15 years and people who have had identities on the internet for over 10. That’s a rather long time to gather information that’s attached to your name, and there’s a good chance that most if not all of that content is from the distant past and doesn’t exactly shine as an example of your character.

How Replacing the Past Is Relevant

One issue that has come up in regards to replacing your past with things that are more positive is, well, our whole perspective on privacy. How many of the things you posted five years ago had the option of being made private to everyone who didn’t have direct authorization? Not many. Today, there’s a myriad of options available to you that can make it so your content just doesn’t show up, so even though you posted about that incredible non-profit you interned at over the summer on your Facebook

account, it might not remotely show up on search results because you’ve actually made it impossible for anyone outside of your friendship circle to see it.

That’s a big problem if you’re trying to get rid of that embarrassing story about you at the top of the search results. Not only that, but now that all the good stuff is private, none of it is actually showing up when you get investigated by a possible employer or your partner. Instead, all you’re left with are those not-so-great stories from another time and, arguably, a time when you were not who you are today.

As a result, finding ways to cover up your digital past can often be a pretty good idea and there are excellent reasons why you should when you really think about it. Even if you don’t have specifically negative things attached to your name right now, it’s great to get the good things out in the open via methods that are seen as legitimate by Google. A post on a newspaper’s website that is read by thousands has a bit more weight than a blog that was just created and its only content is something about you. It works like this in real life, and it certainly works like this on the internet too.

Can It Help You?

So, ask yourself, what do you see when you look yourself up on Google? What about your business? Is everything you see more than eight months old? Are there results on the first page that hail back from the social media stone age? If so, an online reputation management (ORM) company like NuProfile.com might be able to help you out, and it’s probably going to be a good idea to get it done.

There’s no need to have unnecessary things from the past represent who you are today, both as an individual and as a business. The mistakes and events that happened five years ago are definitely not the mistakes and events from today, so why would you want those looking you up to be judging you based on those faults? Should these people not instead read about what you did just last month?

When it really comes down to it, you have to ask yourself a question that will dictate how you move forward when it comes to your online reputation. Do you want people to know you as the 16 year old with an unhealthy video game obsession who posted about it on several message boards or do you want them to know you as the 22 year old that just graduated at the top of his class and is currently waiting on a patent to be approved?