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Online Reputation Management

How do you maintain a good on-line reputation? What can you do when others post extremely embarrassing comments (or images) about you? How can they be removed – or at least made less visible to search engines, to prevent others from stumbling across the relevant links?

I’ve recently been advising someone who is very concerned about what has happened to them: “For years there has been an offensive post about me on the internet. It is embarrassing and I have wished for years that it would get removed. However, the website where it was posted has closed down and I have no means of contacting them.”

Despite Google’s attempts to remove the offending material from its search results, the victim remains concerned that others will find it.

Not even the fabled “right to be forgotten” proposal in the Data Protection Regulation would have been of much help in this instance – as the material was originally posted by an American company that has folded - but who had passed their data assets to another American company before closing down.

How can victims be reassured that embarrassing material won’t be shadowing them for years to come?

Of course I appreciate the tension between freedom of expression, on the one hand, and censorship, on the other. But I also appreciate the anguish that victims can feel when it appears (at least to them) that they are being unfairly hounded.

Perhaps, in time, the shadow from the embarrassing material will ship down search rankings, as more favourable material about an individual is posted.

But the internet (and particularly the Internet Archive) does not forget. Somehow we have to come to terms with this reality. Just as we need to accept that data controllers have rights too. Particularly in terms of the information assets they’ve legitimately acquired.

What’s most poignant is that the person I’m advising is just 17 years old. Having had the shadow of this material around their neck for a few years already, you can imagine how they might feel if they were told that there was no hope that this material would ever be placed beyond the reach of internet users.  

If you can’t afford the services of reputation management companies like Iginyte, then who can you turn to?

Source:

www.igniyte.co.uk/

Image credit:

http://virulentwordofmouse.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/blank_screen_on_computer.png

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EDPS appointment confusion clarified

Brussels is a wonderful place to exchange views, gossip and intrigue with chums. And, last night, I was able to enjoy the company of an extremely experienced (and discrete) Commission insider who presented me with an extremely convincing overview of the current situation regarding the appointment of a successor to Peter Hustinx, the outgoing European Data Protection Supervisor.

First, the facts. The Commission is stuffed with sophisticated administrators who carry out their tasks in an extremely professional manner. They try hard to take full account of the particular sensitivities of a very diverse range of stakeholders. They can’t please everyone all of the time. And I admire their integrity and dedication to trying to do what they consider to be in the best interests of the community. Many of them are extremely polished performers. They don’t make many mistakes.

Next, the politics. Getting the timing of all major Commission appointments right is an impossible task. High-fliers who are earmarked for particular jobs often encounter difficulties when making themselves available at a time that suits both their current, and their future, boss.

And that is what has happened in this case. While the term of the European Data Protection Supervisor is supposed to have expired last week, the individual whom I understand has been earmarked for the job is currently so valuable to their current boss that it is highly unlikely that they will be available to serve as EDPS until this autumn.

If my source is right – and they helpfully shared with me (in confidence) the name of their nominee – I see the logic behind that explanation. This individual currently has an extremely important role, and I can see why it is that their boss would not wish to dispense with their services at this precise time. I can also see why their boss would not like the name of that candidate to become widely known just yet.

Even the European Commision’s transparency agenda contains the odd exception. Like, when it relates to the European Commission.

So, the stage is set for a rerun of the selection process. This individual will apply, and will sail through the “What is your vision of the future role of the EDPS” question when it is asked by the anonymous selection panel.  A newly elected European Parliament will nod the appointment through, the usual suspects will issue a collective groan, and the new EDPS will thank Peter Hustinx for so kindly (and so expertly) keeping the seat warm.

As a mild diversionary tactic, I understand that Peter Hustinx has let it be known that as it only takes nine months for a couple to create a new human being, he will formally resign from his post if he has not been replaced by the end of October.

Fear not, Peter.  If I were you, I would safely book a holiday in the fjords next October. Your services as EDPS won’t be required by then.  The die has been cast. The Commission knows what it is doing, and what it wants, and for all I know it has probably already pencilled a date in the calendar for the formal announcement of your successor.

 It’s a sophisticated machine, the European Commission.    And, in the end, all will turn out for the good.

My (unreliable) data protection predictions for 2014

The success of last year’s predictions (see my blog dated 31 December 2012) has inspired me to try again.  While a few were wide of the mark, others were spot on. Can my predictions be as reliable in 2014? Only time will tell.

January

Gareth Malone contacts the ICO chorus to ask if it is interested in TV special, and a concert supporting Susan Boyle during the Malaysian leg of her 2014 world tour. Information Commissioner Graham accepts the offer, realising it’s the only way he’ll get the funds to travel to the International Data Protection Commissioners Conference in Mauritius in 2014.

February

Emergency budget restrictions implemented at the ICO cause BT to cut off all lines to the ICO’s ’s offices in Wilmslow due to non-payment of phone and internet bills. Problem noticed and resolved within 8 working days.

March

Roof falls in at the ICO’s annual conference in Manchester after thunderous applause greeted a short speech from Information Commissioner Graham explaining what he really thinks of the soon-to-depart European Commissioner Vivien Reding.

April

David Smith announces that, as annual staff turnover is now at a record 45%, to provide continuity of data protection guidance, he will commit himself to remaining with the ICO until at least his 94^th birthday.

May

Commissioner Graham summoned to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee to explain why the roof of the Manchester Convention Centre fell in while he was speaking last March. ICO ordered to pay the cost of the repairs.  ICO announces that it will do so by cutting the number of enforcement staff employed to fine public authorities for data protection breaches.

June

ICO announces that new budgetary restrictions mean more changes will be made to the procedure for registering DPA complainants. To ensure that complainants receive an even more attentive and personal service, complaints themselves are required to attend the ICO’s offices in Wilmslow, Cardiff, Edinburgh or Belfast in person to register their complaints. Emails containing complaints or copies of documents are no longer considered acceptable and will not counted towards the ICO’s statistics which show how it deals with complaints in a timely manner.

July

Guardian Newspaper publishes more revelations from Edward Snowden and the NSA. Information Commissioner Graham has evidently never been of sufficient interest to the British or US authorities to require the Home Secretary consider signing a warrant to intercept his private communications.  

August

Commissioner Graham summoned to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee to explain why he was never considered sufficiently important to require scrutiny from the intelligence services. Commissioner Graham explains (yet again) that data protection is a bit of a Cinderella subject that very few people take seriously, which is why hardly anyone has complained when so much of his 2013 – 15 operating budget has been cut, and why so few national honours have ever been awarded for services to data protection. Evidence session brought to a prompt close to provide enough time for the next set of witnesses, who are to be questioned on the social menace of dog fouling along Frinton seafront.

September

Grand gala concert for the outgoing European Commissioner Viviane Reding in the European Parliament celebrates her many triumphs. The event is interrupted by a section of the audience who roundly boo the ICO chorus, not because of their vocal abilities, but because they are accompanied by the UKIP orchestra. Order only restored when Commissioner Graham and Viviane Reding sing a tender duet together. 

October

The incoming European Commissioner whose portfolio will include Data Protection (some politician from Denmark, Malta or Norway) explains that the Commission is now keen for the current Data Protection Directive should be replaced by a slightly revised Directive, rather than a complicated Regulation, to enable each EU Member State to be as beastly as they want to Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo!.

November

The International Association of Privacy Professionals announces changes to its daily news feeds. Such is the incessant data protection noise from all parts of the globe that its daily digest will be replaced with an hourly digest, bringing details of all those great seminars and webinars that people can register to attend (and for such reasonable fees). Monthly IAPP conferences are announced in every continent, causing many other data protection conference organisations to cease trading.  The European Commission criticises the IAAP’s international privacy certification scheme, arguing that it is not sufficiently focussed on local privacy rules.

December

A lucky data protection oik receives a letter from the Lord Chamberlain’s Department, explaining that if they’re everso good then HM Queen might be minded to award them a gong in recognition of their services to data protection. Said oik is then asked, if the award is forthcoming, whether they might kindly reconsider their previous announcement to refrain from retiring from the ICO until their 94^th birthday.

121231 – crystal ball

Image credit:

http://noelanirodriguez.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Crystal_Ball___Stock_by_Sassy_Stock.jpg