Hiding Your Digital Footprint
If you ask any average person on how to cover your tracks online, they’ll tell you one thing: don’t use your name. It’s technically sound advice if you’re an individual who isn’t really involved in much of anything. Since no one has any reason to use your name, and if you’re not using your name, then, well, you just won’t show up!
Unfortunately, the number of people who can honestly say there’s not a single piece of information about them on the internet today is rather low. If you fit any of the following criteria, there is something out there that traces back to you.
• You use social media
• You were involved with some type of media-related event
• You own a business
• You are a noteworthy member of an organization
• You have publicly made controversial statements
• You were not quite so careful when you were younger on the internet
Now more than ever it’s become incredibly difficult to keep your information fully private. On many websites, you need to use your real name or you’re locked out of certain features if you don’t use your real name. We’ve all used websites in the past year that have required us to sign in with our Facebook accounts if we want to view a video or place a comment. What was once a haven of anonymity is slowly turning into a platform that has a decent level of accountability.
Reasons Why You Might Want Some Help To Hide Your Digital Footprint
This accountability does come with its own problems. Generally speaking, not many of us are thinking about being searched by employers, partners, or just any old acquaintance. We’re entering an era where mostly everyone has been using the internet since a young age and our decision making processes back then were certainly not what they are today. That’s totally alright, but sometimes it can cause a pretty big problem. Do we really want the musings of a self-absorbed 15 year old to be attached to our names when a highly reputable employer decides to look us up on the internet?
Maybe the philosophical argument about the legitimacy of Pokemon catching was interesting back then, but they’re not impressive today and it sucks that something like that is resting at the top of the search results when you get searched. Why couldn’t your popular essay on solipsism be in that space?
This is pretty much where online reputation management (ORM) comes in. Most of us have things on the internet tied to our names or aliases that we can’t get rid of anymore, much like how you can never truly make everyone in that small town forget how you tripped on the stage and spilled some water on an old woman’s head. Still, you can definitely make it so that it’s completely covered up by your accomplishments and positives. Instead of having the main topic of discussion be how you made poor
Ms. Westfield’s head soaking wet, it could instead be about how you were the one responsible for the successful fundraising of a new bridge for the town.
Do You Need Help Covering Your Tracks? Our Reputation Management Experts Can Help You With That
It sounds a bit too good to be true, but something like that is possible on the internet too. There’s absolutely no reason to have your name only be placed alongside embarrassing things or things that are from the distant past, whether you’re an individual or the owner of a prolific business. Simply put, life moves forward but the internet acts as a darn good archive… An archive that will keep your stories of the past at the top if nothing else takes its place.
Luckily, an ORM company solves that problem for you. These guys specialize in making the embarrassing or out-dated snippets disappear from the top and get replaced with things that are factual and put you in a much more positive spotlight. If your business had a run-in with some defective parts six years ago and that’s what people find when they Google you, it makes sense that you’d try your best to showcase that just last year the same product got hailed as one of the most reliable products out there. By covering your digital footprint, you can make sure the past stays in the past and the good actually gets seen. So work with the best that can make you a nu profile and save your digital footprint.
