November 15, 2011 in Blog, Portfolio, Press by ClydeStan

Disgruntled Ex-employees Damage Your Reputation

Leading online reputation repair company ClydeStan now offers a specific service to assist businesses in dealing with negative comments and articles written by ex-employees who have a gripe with the company, or the company’s management.  “We have seen a significant increase in cases where companies have contacted us because an ex-employee, usually someone who has been fired or left under stressful circumstances, has posted disparaging comments online”. The comments can be found on a range of different websites, from industry related sites, to social forums, to blogs and so on.

ClydeStan deals with such cases with a range of methods tailored to suit the specific needs of the case. Usually the most immediate concern is to remove the negative comments. Once this is achieved, the focus shifts onto maintaining the absence of such remarks, and developing various marketing and SEO techniques to ensure that the company is shown in a positive light when searched for in the main search engines. Online Reputation Management has extensive experience and expertise in SEO for all the main search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

An established and reputable media company based in Washington recently utilized the services of ClydeStan to combat a particularly fierce online attack by a discontented ex-employee. The head of human resources commented, “This employee felt he was wrongly dismissed. Shortly after leaving the company he started posting many negative comments and mini articles literally slandering our company and the management”. A significant part of our personnel are recruited from a local pool of graduates, and being from this group himself, as well as being very knowledgeable with the Internet, he was able to make sure his comments were viewed by exactly whom he wanted – our potential employees”.

The company had noticed a decline in applications for various graduate positions, but it was actually brought to their attention by a candidate who raised concerns at the interview regarding some of the things he had read online. Further probing and some research online soon showed what was happening and that one source was responsible. The head of HR remarked, “Like most companies, we know our success depends on our staff. We target high caliber individuals to drive our company forward, and such online slander can be detrimental to our success”.

ClydeStan worked with the company and managed to remove almost all the false negative posts and articles. They then proceeded to develop strategies with the human resources and online marketing teams to ensure that a positive and honest profile of the company was portrayed and maintained online. “We wanted to make sure that potential candidates who searched our company online would view a complete, honest and positive profile of the company. From there it is that individual’s decision to continue with the application process, should they be interested in working for us. It would be a shame for both our company and the potential recruit to miss out, based on false information posted by one particularly bitter person”.

Companies such as ClydeStan are finding that such scenarios are becoming increasing common. These days almost all company research by potential employees is performed online. Thus businesses need to ensure that their online profile remains positive and informative, and readers are not distracted with negative – especially false negative – information.

About ClydeStan
ClydeStan provides effective and tailored solutions for companies and individuals who are looking to repair, enhance or manage their online profile or reputation. ClydeStan uses a variety of effective tools to ensure that your company’s brand is promoted online effectively and that search engine results will be geared towards positive reviews and information rather than false results and negative spam. Working mostly for established US based companies and recognized individuals, ClydeStan has an extensive track record of successful online reputation repair campaigns. Their expertise lies not only in repairing online reputations, but also maintaining them, and passing on to their clients the tools they need to ensure that their online reputation remains intact and is not effected by any negative, often false information online.

November 6, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

Why Reputation Management is Important

With the internet being prevalent in many people’s decisions about where to shop or where to get their services, it isn’t hard to see why reputation management is important. Because of the rise of online review sites, your competitors and customers who are angry with you from one reason or another have an outlet to take their frustration out on you anonymously. There is really no way to verify what may or may not have happened between your business and the person leaving the review on the other side of the computer, especially if you have no idea who they are, which means it is important that you don’t let these spiteful negative reviews affect the business you are getting now.

Maintaining a positive reputation on the internet is why reputation management is important to businesses that may be being written about online. With a good reputation management company taking care of your online credibility, you won’t have to worry about constantly scanning several different review sites to make sure nobody is posting fake or negative reviews about your business. Reputation management companies can develop a strategy which allows your customers to post their good experiences online, while at the same time making sure that negative reviews, or reviews from competitors are seen by a few people as possible. This is especially important for sites that do a lot of their business online that may not have a lot, or any, physical foot traffic who you can talk to about their grievances with your store.

Positive reputation management will allow you to gain customers who are more likely to make bigger purchases because they can see on review sites that your company is trustworthy and is well-run. Better reviews can also increase your search engine ranking spots, especially if they are written well and have other people who link to the review. Reputation management companies can do the backlinking for you, letting you draw in customers who may be searching for something similar, but might end up coming across your site, or the review about your site, in the process

When people who are on the fence about doing business with 2 or more businesses do their research, you are going to want them to find all the good reviews about your business that they can. These sorts of people aren’t going to be the type who might only buy one small thing and then not come back to your site, there is a reason for a lot of research, and that is to determine which business is the best for them in the long term. If they see a negative review of your site as the first thing they see, they probably will not get a good first impression, and may not end up using your site at all.

Reputation management is something that almost any company can use, and see positive results from in a matter of days and weeks.

November 4, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

Facts About Online Reputation Management

When a company is spoken poorly of on the internet, with the reviewer having no personal accountability, an online reputation management firm can help overcome an angry customer or your competition to make sure that their bad reviews of your business does not end up costing you customers. While it is a good thing that the internet can allow you to reach a huge collection of customers without too much of a problem, there are review sites online that can serve as a shining example of what your company does best, or they can be used as a platform from which to bring your company’s good reputation down. A good online reputation management firm can protect a company’s reputation online by pushing down bad reviews, responding on behalf of owners, and getting customers to put up good reviews of their own.

Pushing down bad information on business review sites is the most important part of online reputation management. The fewer people who see the bad reviews, the better it is for the business, especially if the reviews are from your competitors or from a customer who is disgruntled. The way that reputation management companies do this is by shooting a lot of links to the bad reviews that are anchored by “negative” texts. This causes bad reviews to drop in the search engine ranking positions, allowing good reviews to take its place. The bad reviews will technically still stay on the site, but you won’t have to worry about very many people seeing them and forming their opinion about your business on a negative review.

Some online review sites allow owners to respond to potential customer complaints, online reputation management companies can do this for the owners, which will save the owner time, and gives the reputation company a direct voice to use their experience in rebuking negative reviews. Since very few reviewers are ever going to return to respond back to the owner once they have their say, it will effectively look like you have successfully defended your business without a whole lot of trouble. This is particularly useful if there is a specific problem about your business that has been fixed or is in the process of getting fixed, since nobody else is going to be commenting on it after a while.

Some online reputation management companies will go the extra mile for their clients and help to get customers to put up their own reviews about the business, usually only contacting satisfied or return clients. This ensures that the reviews are going to be positive, and you should be able to get quite a few positive reviews to help balance out any negative reviews. If there is some sort of overall score that the site gives to businesses based on the percentages of good reviews and bad reviews, you will get a big positive boost with the influx of new positive reviews. These positive reviews can also be spread around the internet and given their own backlinks so they are the ones that show up in the search engines, further negating the impact of a bad review.

November 3, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

Marketing managers barely pay attention to social media until a real crisis hits their brands

Many marketing managers barely pay attention to social media until a real crisis hits their brands. At that point, they’ll rush into action with no real plan or strategy behind the frantic tweets and Facebook posts they send out in response to the rapid spread of untrue rumours or angry complaints across social networks.

Yet the online space – especially social media is increasingly becoming ground zero for reputation crises for organisations. Marketing and PR executives need to think about how to respond online in a systematic manner to a reputation crisis.

Perhaps the first important step is to realise that one can plan for reputation crises that play out partly or mostly online, even if it is difficult to predict when they’ll hit or what form they will take.

The key here is that marketers need to continually assess the risks to their companies’ reputations and plan for a range of scenarios. Most companies know where at least some of the weak links in their reputation lie and can think about how they will communicate around them in a crisis situation.

For example, if a marketing manager knows that the contact centre is slow at answering emails, that the organisation will be reporting poor financial results or that it has experienced a high rate of returns for a particular product, he or she can begin crafting a response strategy for social media just in case the issue turns into a crisis.

It’s important to pair this strategic understanding with the operational processes and tools needed to track and respond to online reputation issues.

Marketers must also ensure their front-line social media employees know what to do when there’s a hint of trouble in the air and who to turn to for help, information and resources.

Most medium and large organisations will find it worthwhile to invest in true online reputation management (ORM) solutions that give them the ability to monitor social conversations for mentions of their brands and issues that are relevant to their businesses.

ORM tools empower marketers with the knowledge they need to respond intelligently to a crisis situation. The more marketers know about an unfolding crisis, the better they can manage it and the better their outcomes will be.

With ORM, they can see what conversations are taking place, and how quickly certain thoughts and sentiments are moving through the social media universe. Often, they can get an early warning of a crisis that allows them to nip it in the bud – perhaps by placating an angry but influential customer before his or her complaints get out of control or stamping out a false rumour.

These solutions also help marketers to manage work-flow across teams and priority areas so that they can keep on top of responses to customers. And these tools also give organisations insight into how effective their responses are in defending or enhancing their online reputations in a crisis.

Companies like ClydeStan offer a comprehensive online reputation management platform that goes beyond simple monitoring. Their professional services are designed to eliminate or minimize the impact of damaging reviews and Internet articles and promote a positive online reputation for individuals and businesses. Furthermore, offering leading online reputation management solutions to help people and businesses to promote, protect and defend their online reputation.

In a real-time world where customers are always online and sharing their opinions about the brands they interact with, crisis management is becoming the default mode of operation for many companies. But organisations that have the right tools in place to listen to social conversations, respond to them quickly and measure the effectiveness of their interventions can turn these crises into opportunities.

By responding quickly, humanly and proactively to a crisis in reputation, companies can create trust with consumers. ORM tools empower organisations with the tools they need to do just this.

ClydeStan employs a strong team of experienced public relations, legal, marketing, and technology professionals, trained to remove or bury defamatory articles, reports and other online complaints by creating and optimizing positive Internet content.

About ClydeStan

ClydeStan LLC is the market leader in online reputation management since 2004. No other reputation company has a client list of celebrities, doctors, lawyers, business owners, accountants, consultants and individuals choosing ClydeStan to promote, protect and defend their online reputation.

October 31, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

The Need For Advanced Online Reputation Management Has Never Been More Important

Reputation management is of grave concern to many. Fairly or not anyone can put up a free website or blog and post something negative about anyone else. Many times these negative postings are anonymous so the credibility of the poster cannot be determined.

Most of the time, these negative postings don’t even make it onto the reputation management radar. They are buried deep within the search engine rankings and very few people ever see them.

However, there is another method that has empowered people to achieve high rankings for negative posts in recent years and that is on websites that have achieved trust and authority within the search engines. Some sites allow consumers to rate products and services from online vendors.

They try to offer a balance view and rating system. But, what happens when a Web business lands upon a consumer advocacy website and has been trashed in the public eye? This is where reputation management and SEO kicks in.

The overall idea of reputation management is both proactive and reactive. Proactive reputation management means establishing a well-known and liked brand with positive reviews. Reactive reputation management means reacting to untoward publicity from unhappy customers (or even competitors).

While both proactive and reactive reputation management can be covered under the guidelines of public relations, such as addressing the claims on message boards, blogs and websites, a search engine optimization expert is most often called in when one of these unfavorable opinions gains high rankings.

The most common method of managing a firm’s reputation through SEO involves trying to push down the unfavourable posting within the search engine rankings. This is also a hotly debated topic since some will consider this manipulation of the rankings.

Those who undertake SEO reputation management will try to elevate the positive posts that are currently below the unfavourable post to being above this post. Another method of SEO reputation management involves getting new favourable posts above the questionable post. Most often SEO reputation management involves both methods.

If a post is downright defamatory, then legal action can be taken and the search engines alerted. But, most of the time, these negative posts either have an element of truth in them (such as an unfavourable news story) or are someone’s biased opinion.

In either case, the business owner must decide whether is it’s wiser from a business sense to contact the website posting the objectionable content and asking them to take it down. Or, if by contacting the website, this may unleash more controversy and unfavourable comments to follow.

In this case, reputation management and SEO work together to devalue the unfavourable opinion at least in regard to the rankings. Since having a bad reputation in the search engine rankings can cost a company thousands of dollars, hiring a Internet Reputation Expert like ClydeStan http://www.clydestan.com to help do some damage control is usually a cost that is well worth it.

ClydeStan, the leading online reputation management solutions has several solutions to help people and businesses to promote, protect and defend their online reputation.

ClydeStan offers a comprehensive online reputation management platform that goes beyond simple monitoring. Their professional services are designed to eliminate or minimize the impact of damaging reviews and Internet articles and promote a positive online reputation for individuals and businesses.

The need for advanced online reputation management has never been more important. A 2010 Microsoft study revealed that 70% of recruiters and HR professionals rejected candidates based on information they found online. More recently, a study by ChannelAdvisor found that 92% of U.S. Internet users read product reviews and 89% of those respondents said the reviews influenced their purchase decision.

“We are living in an age where first impressions are found online. People used to check the Yellow Pages for a job, a date, a pizza or a plumber, but now they check Google,” are common phrases – “Someone can hide behind a hateful comment, video or post that remains online forever and can damage your personal life or business. It is online terrorism.”

ClydeStan employs a strong team of experienced public relations, legal, marketing, and technology professionals, trained to remove or bury defamatory articles, reports and other online complaints by creating and optimizing positive Internet content.

About ClydeStan

ClydeStan LLC is the market leader in online reputation management since 2004. No other reputation company has a client list of celebrities, doctors, lawyers, business owners, accountants, consultants and individuals choosing ClydeStan to promote, protect and defend their online reputation.

July 11, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

Free Tools To Monitor Your Online Reputation

Places that can damage your reputation are everywhere online. Below is a list of the most common areas that you might be concerned with when it comes to safeguarding you r online reputation.

Search Engine Results. By far the most destructive effect of negative postings is that they rank high in Google and other search engine results. They can materialize here either because they are posted on a high traffic site such as Yelp or RipOff Report, or any popular website that ranks high in the search engines. When someone types your name or company name in Google, they will then see this site with a description that mentions your company and possible “how bad of a company you are”.

Online Marketplaces. Sites like eBay, Amazon, and industry buy sell trade forums, that you might to sell goods all permit customers to post highly visible reviews. Even if you have all good reviews, one negative review can stand out and create a nightmare for your sales. If the evaluation was written by an irrational individual and is defamatory toward your company, this can in fact impair your business.

To ask us for a free or help you, please click here

Review Sites. It is progressively more common these days for people to use review sites to find goods and services. This includes people who don’t often use the internet and might be searching for a local business to try out. On review sites like these, if you have only one review and it is a harmful one, it will ruin your rating and may prevent people from choosing you. A good example of a review site is Yelp.com where anyone can post a review about your business.

Online Complaint Sites. These are sites where people can post a complaint about you and basically say whatever they want without verification and in most cases they can fie a complaint anonymously. The owners of these sites will often not remove negative comments even if the author asks them to. Sites such as these are protected and immune from legal action because they are shielded by a law called the CDA Sec. 230 which states that they are not responsible for comments or content posted by a user or third party. There are also sites such as the ComplaintsBoard.com and Scam.com that are widely read.

Social Media. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of users. Facebook is one of the most-used websites online today. Harmful comments that are posted on these sites can appear on the first page of Google’s search results. Social media sites allow any user to make any comment un-moderated and usually will not mediate unless the comments violate the sites terms of service (Profanity or Hate Speech Against A Group, Religion, or Race).

Forums. In forums, there are numerous users “Venting” about things that displease them. In a forum related to your services, a person can effortlessly tell thousands of people to stay away from your company for unsubstantiated or spiteful reasons.

Blogs. Almost everyone has a blog these days, and they often rank well in the search engines. A blog gives someone a stage in which they can circulate anything they’d like to with no moderation from anyone else. Lots of blogs have thousands of readers and some even send their posts straight into their subscriber’s email inboxes. This can cause extensive damage to your company if something bad is being said about you.

The internet is jam-packed of places where any user can post offensive comments about your company, and these comments can effortlessly find their way to thousands if not millions of people. While it’s fantastic that every person has a right to be heard on the Web, few people apprehend the damage this can cause businesses.

To ask us for a free quote or help you, please click here

Below we outline some of the free tools available for monitoring your online reputation.

Blog Monitoring

1. BackType Blog Comments Monitoring – This tool indexes conversations from blogs, social networks and other social media. It also has an alert function that e-mails updates whenever a search term is mentioned in a comment.

2. BlogPulse – BlogPulse is a blog search engine with several complementary tools such as Trend Search and Conversion Tracker that analyzes the data it collects.

3. Google Blog Search – This is a Google beta search engine for blogs.

4. Technorati – Technorati is the leading blog search engine indexing millions of blog posts in real time. It also tracks the authority, influence and popularity of blogs.

Twitter Monitoring

5. Monitter – A real-time Twitter monitor for up to three keywords at a time.

6. TweetBeep – This tool provides hourly Twitter alerts sent via e-mail. You can specify keywords, people and links to track.

7. Tweet Later – TweetLater has a number of features for Twitter users, and it also monitors Twitter and e-mails you a digest of the tweets that contain your specified keywords. You can also use this to track your @replies.

8. Twitter Search – Twitter Search was formally Summize. It searches all Twitter activity for keywords, links or user activity in real time.

Link Monitoring

9. BackTweets – This is a service by BackType that provides an engine to search for specific links mentioned on Twitter.

10. WhoLinksToMe – A link search tool that tracks backlinks and makes them easily sortable by anchor text, origination, and by the target URL with enhanced reporting capability. You can also import links from Google Webmaster Tools for enhanced analysis.

Other Tools

11. Google Alerts – Your keyword search results are sent via e-mail for keyword mentions in news, web, blogs, video and groups categories.

12. BoardTracker – This tool searches discussion boards and forum threads for your specified keywords. You can also sign up for e-mail alerts.

13. MonitorThis – MonitorThis is a search aggregator for up to 26 search engine feeds.

14. Naymz – A social network focused on reputation, personal branding, and identity verification. Basic version is free.

15. Purewire Trust – An online portal that helps people verify reputation information about themselves and those with whom they interact online. You can search by e-mail address, URL or web application.

16. Yasni – This is a search engine dedicated to finding people on the web through publicly available information, including images, videos, social networking profiles and posts.

With the number of tools available, you will probably need to do some research to determine which services fulfill your needs. Usually a mix of a few of these free services will cover your bases, but you will need time to do the manual work necessary for the tools that are not automated.

To ask us for a free quote or help you, please click here

May 28, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

Understanding Internet Defamation and Internet Reputation

What is Online Reputation Management – Internet Defamation?

The Internet is a great method for immediate communication, to any place in the world. But this has also become a medium for ruthless attacks on the reputation of businesses and individuals, by posting offending and slanderous information about individuals, companies and reputed brands. Online attacks are done mostly through blogs, forums and review sites.

Negative reviews about a person, a company or a brand can be posted in blogs, forums, chat rooms and on review sites by anyone – at any time. In spite of how baseless and untrue the reviews may be, they can still create doubt in the reader’s mind, tarnishing the reputation of the individual, company or the brand mentioned in the review. Researches show that only a very few people dig deeper in to search results past the first three pages.

Internet Defamation – how dangerous?

When people get really emotional and write defamatory reviews and blogs on the internet, they may perhaps think, “I’m gonna show him/her”. But what will happen after that emotional hype, we really wonder! Often people stop thinking about the negative review that they wrote and move on with their daily chores, forgetting that they have set fire on someone else’s life. Why this happens? Anyone is free to express his/her opinion on Internet, without much restriction. A person with an average knowledge can easily publish statements, articles or news items across the world in an instant, even without any editing. Thereafter it will linger in cyberspace for months or even years, impossible to amend or hide, creating many problems. With the popularity of blogs, forums, community message boards and social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook, posting one’s opinion about a person/a company or a brand has a become very easy and it will reach thousands of people in a few clicks. If such reviews are left unchecked, it can create a serious impact on one’s online reputation. Do you need advice? Click here

A few words about Defamation: Defamation can be defined as an act of making untrue and erroneous statements to a third party, to damage the subject’s reputation. This includes several sub categories; including Libel and Slander. Defamation also includes unprivileged publications that contain false or defamatory statements. Protect yourself/your company/your brand from negative online image: If negative information about you/your company /your brand exists online, you can take it far from the first page of search engines like Google or Bing, Yahoo, Ask, etc. by approaching a professional online reputation management company, like ClydeStan LLC. We will help you to track, manage and repair your or your brand’s online reputation. Do you need advice? Click here

You need a good online reputation – or else!

A good online reputation is more valuable than money or any other possessions. Be sure you have a spotless online identity! You can ‘Google’ your or your brand’s name and see what people say online. Are there any negative comments or reviews about you or your company or brand? When someone types your name/ your company’s name/ your brand’s name into Google, the result should only have pages of your website followed by social media profile pages and may be a couple of positive reviews about you / your company/ your brand. The visitors should never come across a string of offensive, derogatory and unanswered negative reviews, comments, blogs or press releases. You may perhaps ignore the bad online reviews and comments saying you cannot please everyone all the time. But can you imagine a friendly relationship of yours getting sabotaged, your business getting slowly declined, your brand facing bad times just because of those reviews?

Actually most bad reputations online are caused due to neglect. Whether it is individuals or business, people don’t manage online details properly ending up creating poor online impression. Search engines can defined as digital versions of Pandora’s Box. You need to be increasingly active online to be aware what’s being said, good or bad.

You need a good Internet Reputation Company because:

To put in simple terms, it takes years to build a good reputation, personal or professional, and just minutes to destroy it. A bad online reputation may spoil your entire business and many good relationships. So don’t wait for that to happen!

ClydeStan helps individuals, companies and brands to build, maintain and safeguard good online reputation. By combining the power and far reaching impact of Search Engine Optimization & Social Media Marketing, along with our online tracking and reporting web applications, we will ensure that your Internet Reputation is as good as it should be. Do you need advice? Click here

May 20, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

Internet Defamation Suit Tests Online Anonymity

It bills itself as the world’s “most prestigious college discussion board,” giving a glimpse into law school admissions policies, post-graduate social networking and the hiring practices of major law firms.

But the AudoAdmit site, widely used by law students for information on schools and firms, is also known as a venue for racist and sexist remarks and career-damaging rumours.

Now it’s at the heart of a defamation lawsuit that legal experts say could test the anonymity of the Internet.

After facing lewd comments and threats by posters, two women at Yale Law School filed a suit on June 8 in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Connecticut, that includes subpoenas for 28 anonymous users of the site, which has generated more than 7 million posts since 2004.

According to court documents, a user on the site named “STANFORDtroll” began a thread in 2005 seeking to warn Yale students about one of the women in the suit, entitled “Stupid Bitch to Enter Yale Law.” Another threatened to rape and sodomize her, the documents said.

The plaintiff, a respected Stanford University graduate identified only as “Doe I” in the lawsuit, learned of the Internet attack in the summer of 2005 before moving to Yale in Connecticut. The posts gradually became more menacing.Some posts made false claims about her academic record and urged users to warn law firms, or accused her of bribing Yale officials to gain admission and of forming a lesbian relationship with a Yale administrator, the court papers said.

The plaintiff said she believes the harassing remarks, which lasted nearly two years, cost her an important summer internship. After interviewing with 16 firms, she received only four call-backs and ultimately had zero offers — a result considered unusual given her qualifications.

Do you need advice? Click here

Another woman, identified as Doe II, endured similar attacks. The two, who say they suffered substantial “psychological and economic injury,” also sued a former manager of the site because he refused to remove disparaging messages. The manager had cited free-speech protections.

LIFTING THE MASK

“The harassment they were subjected to was quite grotesque,” said Brian Leiter, a professor at University of Texas Law School. “Any judge who looks at this is going to be really shocked, and particularly shocked because these appear to be law students.”

The suit is being watched closely to see if the posters are unmasked, a step that could make anonymous chat room users more circumspect. It also underlines the growing difficulty of protecting reputations online as the Web is used increasingly to screen prospective employees and romantic partners.

“They can’t hide behind anonymity while they are saying these scurrilous and menacing things,” said Eugene Volokh, a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles.

He said the site was not liable under federal protections that are more lenient on Web sites than TV and newspapers. Prosecuting the manager could also be difficult because he did not write the posts, Volokh added. But the anonymous posters look liable and their careers could be jeopardized, he said.

“This ought to be a warning to be people that if you say things that are not just rude but arguably libellous and potentially threatening and perhaps actionable on those grounds then their identity might be unmasked,” he said.

Finding and identifying the posters — including one called “The Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rollah” — could be tough but is not impossible. The process involves subpoenas issued to Internet Service Providers for records, and then more subpoenas to companies, institutions or people identified on those records.

Yale decided to use ClydeStan defamation repair on all individuals concerned – today, there are no mentions about the case on the Internet. Both females are working for leading law firms.

About ClydeStan:

ClydeStan is leading in Online Reputation Management, specializing in removal of any unwanted listings, posts, character defamation, ripoff reports through online reputation repair.

Do you need advice? Click here

May 19, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Mug Shot Removal, Press by ClydeStan

I saw your mug shot on the Internet – you are fired.

There’s one of two reasons you’re not laughing at the moment. Most commonly it’ll be because the joke wasn’t funny. Then you have the person who was arrested, rightfully or wrongly, not charged but the photo is on a mug shot website. You might recognize the young Microsoft Entrepreneur… On the Internet. Forever?

The Internet’s a great wee thing. If you want an MP3 player, you’ll search for it on Google. Vintage cars? Google. Oh, what’s that? You’d like to find out a bit more about the person you’re trusting in business or even a family member? Yeah, Google will help you there too. In fact, people are becoming increasingly reliant on search engines for absolutely all their earthly needs, and – for better or worse – search engines are getting better at finding information too.

More and more vigilante for profit websites are springing up like Florida Arrest.org, Jail Base.com, Mugshots.com, Phoenixmugs.com, and Whosarrested.com just to name a few

Your mug shot could cost you a fortune, your job, family and friends!

New: Fast Track () Removal for $499.00– Click here

Imagine if you were arrested and booked but your charges were later dismissed in court. That’s all good news with the exception of your mug shot that is still on the first page of Google. Now you understand the plight of so many who were vindicated in court but still found guilty in Google.

There was once a time when only serious criminals and celebrities had to worry about their mug shot going public, but now even a traffic arrest can result in your photo landing on the first page of Google.

Of course, you can buy a book – learn about SEO, SERM, ORM – Google algorithms, Yahoo, Bing and all the other search engines. Or you call in the experts.

ClydeStan is the recognized market leader removing mug shots, unwanted links, reviews, photos, etc.. We specialize in Online Reputation Management, removal of any unwanted listings, character defamation, ripoff reports through online reputation repair or simple deletion.

Click here to have your mug shot or unwanted links removed from search engines and websites forever.

May 13, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

The Laws of Reputation Management

Law #1 – Everyone has an online reputation

We all have an online reputation to maintain. If you don’t believe us, go ahead and “Google Yourself”– We promise you won’t go blind! Even if you don’t find anything written about you, then that’s still your reputation–or lack thereof. In 2011, you should make sure that what’s found in Google, Facebook, Twitter et al is something you’d be equally comfortable showing your mother, friends or your boss! And the recent SuperInjunctions have shown there are a lot of stories out there. You don’t have to be one of them.

Law #2 – Your reputation is an extension of your character

It doesn’t matter how hard you work on managing your reputation, it will only ever be as solid as your actual character. Tiger Woods had a reputation of being the greatest golfer–and a family man. His character revealed otherwise. As Abraham Lincoln once said,

“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

Law #3 – Every reputation has an Achilles heel

While Toyota may have spent years telling us that its cars are the most reliable in the world, sticking gas pedals told a different story. In fact, even though Toyota tried to deny the increasing incidents of sticking accelerators, its customers were the ones steering the car manufacturer’s reputation in another direction. Instead of denying the issue, Toyota should have been the first to recognize it! When you recognize and acknowledge your weaknesses, before your customers, you have the opportunity to craft a response before the public outcry. Do you know your reputation’s weakness?

Are you concerned about your Internet Reputation? Please click here for a quotation to resolve your issues.

Law #4 – Listen twice, act once

It’s too easy to simply jump in and reply to that tweet or Facebook post–without fixing the underlying problem. Instead, you should spend time actively listening to the feedback you’re collecting about your reputation. Listen for trends. Listen for opportunities. Listen, listen, listen–ok, that was three listens, but you get the point. When you actually take onboard what your stakeholders are saying about your reputation, you do more than just fix a problem, you make sure you fix the underlying issue that created the problem in the first place! GAP’s customers weren’t so much angry that the company’s logo was changed, they were mad that the company hadn’t initially thought to listen to their feedback–a decision the apparel company quickly reversed!

Law #5 – A crowd is louder than a solitary voice

At some point every company realizes the power of the crowd. You’ve heard of “crowd sourcing” right? It called “crowd voicing.” Simply put, your reputation is going to be far greater shaped by a crowd of opinions than one single voice. Your choice in 2011 is to determine whether you want that crowd to be a choir or a lynch mob? By being proactive, by loving and nurturing your online community, you can build a harmony of satisfied customers–all willing to say great things about you. Alternatively, you can ignore your customers and wait until they become so angry, so disgusted by your actions, that they rise up against you. Just ask P&G which it would have preferred in hindsight!

Law #6 – If you build it, they will come

It’s 2011, do you know where your customers are? Have you built them a thriving Facebook community? Can they receive customer service via Twitter? Do you have a blog that keeps them updated on all the changes with your products? If you build an official, company supported social network, then your customers will know exactly where to head, should they have a question or complaint. Ensure you remove your name from Google.

Are you concerned about your Internet Reputation? Please click here for a quotation to resolve your issues.

Law #7 – If you don’t build it, they will

If you decide not to embrace your reputation stakeholders, then you run a huge risk that they’ll create their own community. Not so bad, if you happen to have a strong reputation–Apple gets by with no official social media effort. But, it’s generally not a good idea to stick you head in the sand and ignore those that want to share their experiences with you. If your customer wants to complain about your abusive customer service reps they may well head to Facebook or Yelp. If you don’t have an official presence then you are leaving these dissatisfied customers to define your reputation for you! Resolve to discover where your customers like to “hang out” and then make sure you’re hanging with them!

Law #8 – Your reputation WILL come under attack

No matter how hard you try, your reputation will someday come under attack. It happened to us–and we are the number one reputation management consultants! In fact, Oxford Metrica warns that during the next five years, 83 percent of companies will face a crisis that will negatively impact its share price by 20 to 30 percent. I’m pretty sure BP didn’t think such a crisis could happen to it–and that’s a lot of profit at stake!

Law #9 – Being stubborn is more expensive than saying “sorry”

United Airlines, what in the world were you thinking? Seriously! It would have cost you $1,200 to , but instead you refused to take responsibility. Two music videos and 10 million views later, you ended up with a tarnished reputation and apologized anyway. Don’t make the same mistake as United. When you receive a complaint from a customer, look beyond your pride. Look beyond the immediate expense of making the customer happy. Instead, ask yourself, what’s the worst case scenario here? What’s the lifetime value of this customer–value that would be lost. How could this hurt future sales, new customer acquisition, and your reputation? I’m pretty sure United Airlines wishes it could go back in time and cough-up the $1,200.

Law #10 – Three strikes and you’re out

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a third time and you may as well kiss your reputation goodbye. The law here is that most customers will forgive you the first time you screw-up. Some, will forgive you a second time it happens. Get to the third screw-up and yerrrrr out! Seriously, how many times has Comcast come under fire? A gazillion? I’ve lost track, but it’s gotten so bad that the company is now undergoing a massive re-branding–arguably due to its negative reputation. Companies rarely re-brand when they have a great reputation! When you make a mistake, make sure you learn from it, tell your customers you have learned from it, and make sure you never repeat it!

Are you concerned about your Internet Reputation? Please click here for a quotation to resolve your issues.

April 13, 2011 in Blog, Press by ClydeStan

Reputation, Reputation? Types of Online Reputation Management

Learn about different types of Online Reputation Management: Defensive: Reverse Reputation Problems, Protective: Build a Barrier Against New Issues , Online Review Management Services (ORM), (ORMS) , Negative Review Management (NRM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

ClydeStan is in the business to solve online reputation management problems ranging from protective to extremely nasty.

Contact us now with your issue and our professionals will create a FREE custom based on your online reputation management needs.

Services include defensive and protective reputation management services. Every project is different, here are some of the services ClydeStan provides within a given solution.

Defensive Online Reputation Management

Aggressive techniques to help positive, true web content rise in search results. Unlike SEO (Search Engine Optimization), our reputation management techniques dramatically change the first pages of search results instead of just one website.

Protective Reputation Management

Protecting your good name online and simultaneously change the first pages of search results in your favour. In other words, we make you look better online and protect you against online reputation attack. Many clients simply want to use online reputation management to sculpt search results in their favour. We help move site or review pages up for a certain search phrase by improving the relevance of the page and other factors, or by moving good supporting information up as well. We help clients control the first page of search results.

Search Engine Optimization

Often we do such a good job of reputation management, clients continue to use our services for search engine optimization long after the reputation management problem has been eliminated. Our massive network of online relationships can be harnessed to focus on the key phrases you want your site to rise for.

Review Management

Review sites are the life blood of many companies. We help manage positive reviews for software, books, and products by managing the posting of real customers’ positive reviews. We do not offer ‘shill’ (fake) reviews, but we do offer a long-term strategy and execution of real, true reviews designed to get products the highest rating they deserve.

Why Our Reputation Services Are Better

We use real people for internet reputation management. We find relevant positive information and influence it to move up in the search results. Sometimes we create new information that includes your key phrase in the body copy (content), and we promote that. We make recommendations to our clients about what they can do to help improve positive search results as well. How you are seen on the internet is important, our online marketing management programs craft online perception.

Confidential

The work we do for our search engine reputation management clients is confidential. Online reputation management can be a sensitive matter; we understand this. Only our core staff are aware of the specific nature of our confidential assignments. Whether we help our clients site(s) rise, or assist negative information to fade back in the results, we do so quietly.

Helping Good News Rise

Online Reputation Management (ORM) sometimes referred to as SERM is the promotion of positive listings to the first page of search results. We don’t make negative results move down, we help positive results move up. Do this enough, and negative results tend to fall back to the second and third pages (often well beyond). Since the vast majority of people only view the first pages of search results, negative search results tend to ‘fade away’.

We use various reputation management techniques to accomplish our clients goals. Our techniques may include creation of blogs, articles, press releases, web sites, or using social media for reputation management. In addition, we improve the relevance of third-party sites that carry positive information.

Contact us now with your issue and our professionals will create a FREE custom quote based on your online reputation management needs.

April 11, 2011 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

ClydeStan Announces Protection Strategy For Businesses

ClydeStan, a Bermuda-based Internet reputation management firm with offices in London and San Antonio has announced a new brand protection strategy for both large and small businesses. ClydeStan.com is a leading search engine marketing firm that has carved a niche by developing Internet brand reputation management packages for executives, professionals, celebrities, athletes and businesses.

ClydeStan.com focuses on helping individuals and companies protect their good online image. With years of experience in Internet marketing and brand protection, the founders have developed a tactical solution for companies and individuals looking to clean up and protect their Internet presence.

In the past decade, the Internet, specifically search engines have changed the way consumers get information. Before making almost any decision individuals and consumers are using major search engines such as Google to research who, what, and where. A simple Google search can reveal just about anything on anyone. Whether the information is true or not, once it goes online it’s there for everyone to see. Unregulated consumer advocacy websites, angry loggers and forum posters are popping up left and right. The slander war has taken over and it has given jealous competitors, angry ex-lovers, disgruntled employees and anyone else who feels the itch to jump online a public venue to slander individuals and companies.

Negative and false information published online can be extremely destructive. Companies can easily be put out of business by false, negative slander online. Individuals can lose potential relationships, careers and much more. Recent studies by CareerBuilder showed that hiring managers are using Google and Social media websites to research potential candidates and harmful content found online is losing people jobs. A new survey from Kaplan Test Prep reveals that 82 percent of admission officers use Facebook in their recruiting, so while you may think some pictures of you and your buddies on Facebook is harmless, a college recruiter may be analyzing the picture to determine if you are going to be admitted to their school or not.

A global leader in Internet brand management, ClydeStan.com has developed a proprietary process for protecting and cleaning up online reputations. Using sophisticated search engine marketing (SEM), content dissemination, social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and algorithmic research, the firm ensures your online presence is truthful and positive.

In February of 2011 the company announced a new Social Media brand protection strategy designed for businesses. “After months of intensive R&D on this particular strategy, we are ready to launch it and release it to our clients. It’s something we are very excited about and know our clients will love,” says Mark Tinger, Senior Consultant at ClydeStan.

The strategy uses a combination of major social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to promote a brand quickly and effectively. This proprietary technique increases overall social network reach and visibility creating powerful online assets in the process.

The firm’s new social media strategy was launched in February and is now fully operational.

For more information, please visit http://www.clydestan.com

March 28, 2011 in Blog, Press by ClydeStan

Remove Name From Google

Remove name from Google is impossible if you’re dealing with someone with an axe to grind. Bad news travels quickly and this is especially true online. Law suits are time consuming, emotionally draining and ultimately ineffective at stopping the spread of negative publicity.

That’s the world we live in today. Thanks to the anonymity the internet provides, it’s fairly easy for any disgruntled employee, ex lover, or market competitor to talk trash about you online without assuming any accountability for damaging your online reputation. Then again, even if you manage to remove your name from one website, the way information spreads over the internet makes it impossible to prevent bad press from spreading over social networking sites and blogs. So how do you deal with the problem?

That’s where online reputation management comes in. Think of it as brand management where your name is the brand and keeping it protected from malicious attacks is the only goal that matters. When you think of online reputation management in these terms, you begin to realize that, just like any other brand, there are different search engine optimization strategies our company can use to protect your online reputation.

Contact us now with your issue and our professionals will create a FREE custom based on your online reputation management needs.

One of the most effective methods to manage your online reputation is to take advantage of the fact that most people who will Google your name or the name of your company will not look beyond the first 1-2 search engine result pages (SERP). Most people also assume that the first page results show the most relevant information so they also tend to assign less credibility or value to pages lower down on Google’s ranking.

So the general idea is to control those critical first few pages on the search engine result page. This can be a long and tiring process so you might want to consider a professional reputation management service like Clydestan.com to make sure that anything you want published about you is properly optimized from the search engine optimization standpoint so it will have a greater chance of making it to the front page results.

Contact us now with your issue and our professionals will create a FREE custom quote based on your online reputation management needs.

March 11, 2011 in Blog, Press by ClydeStan

Doctor, Doctor – I Found A Picture Of You Drunk And Now I Don’t Want Surgery.

There’s one of two reasons you’re not laughing at the moment. Most commonly it’ll be because the joke wasn’t funny. Then you have the group of doctors who’ve just realised that the pictures they posted of last year’s New Years party might well cost them clients.

The internet’s a great wee thing. If you want an MP3 player, you’ll search for it on Google. Vintage cars? Google. Oh, what’s that? You’d like to find out a bit more about the person you’re trusting to reconstruct your nose? Yeah, Google will help you there too. In fact, people are becoming increasingly reliant on search engines for absolutely all their earthly needs, and – for better or worse – search engines are getting better at finding information too.

With new search tools such as Social CV and the long-running Xobni being able to scan dozens of social networking sites for personal information and internet behavioural trends, it’s never been more important to get a proper handle on your online presence. It’s more common just now for companies to use these tools to ‘vet’ candidates for employment or prospective business partners, but the information is there to be found by anyone.

Choosing a doctor is a big decision, and people need to have confidence that the people they’re trusting (often with their lives) are deserving of such trust. What does a Google search say about you? What does your Facebook or Twitter profile say about you? Your online social media presence, whilst usually intended to be personal, can be read into and used to form an opinion of you. And unless you’ve been careful to actively project a professional image of yourself, it could end up costing you. All it takes is for somebody to find a picture of you mooning a camera, 20 years ago in college, for a prospective client to lose confidence in you (or not to contact you to begin with).

An even worse result would be for somebody to find a picture, or see something you’ve said in a post (including, but not limited to, participation in online forums) and they can repeat and relay this information for other people to find with greater ease. With the rapidly growing number of people writing their own blogs on anything and everything, it can sometimes be difficult to contain negative press once it gets out there.

Online Reputation Management is an industry which specializes in making sure that people see exactly what you want them to see. Using an extensive array of search engine optimization and positive marketing techniques, you can be sure that you can enjoy your personal life without worrying about pictures and comments being taken out of context. In turn, this will prevent your business from suffering and allow patients (prospective or otherwise) to evaluate your suitability based on proven medical experience, rather than your favourite football team or what music you listen to.

Click here to ask for a confidential

November 10, 2010 in Blog, Knowledge, Press by ClydeStan

The Top Five Tips For Clearing Up Your Business’s Reputation Online

Remember the not so distant past? If you had a bad client or two for your business, you could expect, at worst, for them to give negative reviews to their family members and friends? This would have a slight, if any, impact on your business’s operations. For the most part, your good clients will continue to be loyal while losing one or two of the bad ones will save you future headaches. Fast forward a few years into the 21st Century. The power of the Internet has completely changed this paradigm.

Your business’s name and reputation can be severely damaged if one or two individuals start a smear campaign. Blogs, consumer review websites, social networking, and all other forms of online communication can wreak havoc on the brand you have spent so long building. Our team at Web Reputation Management is aiming to change that. We apply the latest techniques to ensure that your business’s image is protected and enhanced on the Internet. Below are the top five tips to help your business recover from any online tactics designed to lower your credibility in the eyes of potential customers.

1. Create A Variety Of Accounts For Your Business At Leading Social Networking Websites

2. Invest In High Quality Press Release Writing & Submissions

3. Have Multiple Websites Created For Your Business, Ensuring Your Ranking In Search Engine Results

4. Display Any Business Organizations You Are A Member Of On Your Website

5. Never Back Down & Allow A Pointless Attack, Rant, Or Slandering Of Your Business Online

Want to learn more? Please visit our contact us page. We will be more than happy to arrange a web meeting to discuss your web reputation management needs and how we can help improve your business’s standing on the web.

September 25, 2010 in Blog, Press by ClydeStan

Online Reputation Management for the hopelessly unprepared

Poet Robert Burns is widely credited with the phrase, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.” Relating this phrase in a business context, it stands to reason no matter how much a company orchestrates activities and executes its battle plans—high-impact mistakes happen. However, in an age of over-optimization, and marketing and communications cost-cutting, “soft stuff” such as brand management, press relations, crisis communications and the like are often shelved or discarded in favor of “just-in-time” strategies. Indeed, reputation management isn’t needed … until it’s needed.

In an article from “The Observer,” John Naughton wonders in amazement at how society ever managed without the Internet. Naughton ponders a world without Google, Skype, instant messaging, and online bank accounts. And while the Internet has created boom for most of us, the rise of social media hasn’t been sweet ambrosia for all companies. In fact, with social media and Internet technologies, now company decisions and actions are mostly public, including those of front-line employees. Now, actions that happened last week, last night, or 10 minutes ago can be broadcast across the globe in seconds, creating very dangerous challenges for company branding and reputation efforts.

In the Financial Times article “Perils of a Tarnished Brand,” authors Morgen Witzel and Ravi Mattu notice that even the most scripted and orchestrated product launches can go haywire. And even when “best-intented” marketing plans are well-executed, companies can be exposed to the ramifications of their daily operational and strategic decisions (e.g., Google in China and BP). “What affects reputations, in turn affects brands,” the authors point out.

Every employee is a brand ambassador, and brand management is no longer simply the purview of marketing managers. Even the best branding intentions can go awry when actions don’t back up corporate speak, say Witzel and Mattu.

Of larger concern however, is marketing cost-cutting trends in the name of efficiency that potentially leave brands and reputations exposed. There are numerous Internet and Online Reputation Management companies about who are able to help with all aspects of companies and individual’s reputation on the Internet. Specialized companies like ClydeStan have teams of experts in various fields, including Celebrity Reputation Management. It should be noted that services of those companies are not necessarily cheap, but the phrase “you get what you pay for” – is appropriate.

Robert Mabro, Honorary President of Oxford’s Institute for Energy, describes this problem in a letter to the Financial Times. He writes, “(Companies) no longer want to employ specialists in soft matters, such as political issues and the like. When an accident occurs, they find themselves hopelessly unprepared. This of course (ends up) destroying shareholder value!” Moreover, economist John Kay sums up the problem quite succinctly, “Yesterday’s cost-savings are so often today’s corporate crisis.”

One potential solution is for companies to invest more in “softer matters” like brand, reputation, crisis and risk management. Undoubtedly, some of these considerations are tough to justify in an age of narrow return on investment marketing calculations such as cost per lead. As mentioned above, various companies offer various services, but one of the most noticeable is ClydeStan. They are one of the leading Online Reputation Management Companies specializing in removal of any unwanted listings, character defamation, rip off reports through online reputation repair. Services help consumers and businesses to monitor, protect and improve their online reputation. They offer Personal Packages for individuals who have negative items listed by Search Engines as well as Business Packages for companies who have a brand reputation to defend.

However, Internet and social media technologies that transmit events, news and crisis accounts—at the speed of light—aren’t going away. To succeed in such an environment, companies must invest in the softer functions mentioned above even when “payback” doesn’t appear imminent.

It’s difficult to forecast all types of crises that could occur. A much better plan is preparedness. Related: Financial Times “It Pays to Expect the Unexpected“

September 7, 2010 in Blog, Press by ClydeStan

Remove Your information from People Search Databases, Social Networks, and Search Engine Results

Do you know what kind of personal information about you can be found from Internet? Do you know how to remove your name, address, phone number, pictures, bad comments and negative reviews from Google and other search engine results? Do you know how to delete your personal information from online people search database records?

You’ll be surprised to see what information others can find out about you. Without your knowledge and permission, most your personal records are published on Internet and are available to be searched at background search websites. With your name or a phone number, anyone can pinpoint the house you live in and learn all kinds of personal information you don’t want strangers to know.

Criminals can use your personal information to harass or even harm you or your family. If you are serious about protecting your identity and personal security, you should take actions now to block your personal information from public viewing.

“How do I get my information off the social networks?”, “how to take my name from Google search results?”, “How to stop others from searching my information from people search?” You will find answers to these questions and much more in this article. You can find advices, steps, valuable tools and online resources to help you get rid of your personal information from hundreds of people search databases, major search engines, and popular social network websites.

Exposing your personal information to the Internet is easy, finding your personal information on the Internet is fast, but removing your personal information from the Internet can be very difficult without the right help.

You’re welcome to share your experience on removing your personal information from the Internet or people search sites.

What Kind of Personal Information Are in People Search and Public Data Sources?

Internet is such a great place to look for information, you can easily search and find information from search engines like Google.com, Yahoo.com, Bing.com, Ask.com, or at specialized people search databases and social networks.

It is quite easy to search private information on Internet on almost everyone. As you will see next, there are hundreds people search or background check websites on the Internet. You can make a background check on a lost friend, a missing relative, a potential date, a new neighbor, a prank caller, a ruthless car driver, an unknown mobile number, an unlisted phone number, your boss, your coworker, or strangers you never meet.

On the flip side, not only you can find anything about others, people can also find anything about you - which includes your personal records and private information.

Creditors, banks, political parties use your personal data for legitimate purpose. However, unscrupulous individuals and criminals can use the same information to harm you and your family. With the full availability of your personal information, your identity can be stolen or exploited in illegal activities such as identity theft, predatory marketing, credit fraud, Internet stalking, and etc. It is very important to utilize an online identity protection company such as LifeLock to monitor and protect your identity continuously.

Online identity thieves always try to steal your personal and financial information. With the cost of several dollar or even free, they can also obtain your information legally from online background check sites. The personal information available at these sites are not basic information about your name, address, or phone numbers, the information obtained at these sites are serious Personal and Private Information. To many people, the availability of these information on Internet invades their privacy and could potentially put their family and children on the risk.

What kind of personal information can people see about you? A picture worth thousands words. This is what the search result looks like with reverse phone number lookup at the popular people search site – Intelius:

Most visitors came to this site had already learned that their personal information were exposed on the Internet, they are looking for fast ways to remove and hide their information from public search. If you are not sure what types of personal information about you are available from people search sites, you can make an instant background check on yourself through the popular Intelius:

At most background check and people search sites, a comprehensive background search on a person may include:

* Up-to-date contact information includes address history, phone numbers, cell phone numbers , email addresses, and P.O. box;
* Names and alias used;
* Relatives, household members, neighbors, and associates;
* Marital, family status, marriage history, marriage / divorce records;
* Nationwide criminal record check, sex offender check;
* Bankruptcies, liens, judgments, court records: dates, parties, lawyer names for both parties, verdicts;
* Criminal & background records. police files, arrest records jail records, inmate records;
* Age and DOB – birth records and hospital records;
* Property and real estate records;
* Business ownership and professional listings;

What Are the Names of Major People Search Sites on the Internet?

Online people search databases and public records

It is true that there are hundreds online people search websites, and even Internet search engines also lead you to background check sites when your name is appeared in their search results. However, most these people search sites are associated with several powerful people databases behind the scene. Do you need to visit them all to remove your information? The answer is no, and it is time consuming and almost impossible to go through every search website.

As a matter of fact, the basic people search data feed at Google, Yahoo, Lycos, Whowhere etc is provided by one company – a little surprised?

Clearly, the best way to keep personal information off the internet is find the data sources which are feeding these people search sites – find effective ways to stop them from providing your information to the public.

Many folks asked questions such as “Is it possible to block my cell phone number from internet search?” “How to remove my name and address from Google search engine and people search sites?” The answer is yes and no – depends on what approaches you use. The truth is, at most Internet search engines and people search websites, you can make a request to remove your personal information through an opt-out process under its privacy policy.

The issue is, with so many people search websites, search engines, and social network websites, the opt-out process is quite complicated and length, the privacy policy is also vague and interpreted differently by each website. Also, if you want to remove negative information such bad reviews and comments about yourself from search engine results,it is a complicated task and sometimes are impossible to get ride of without spending money.

Most Internet search websites are data terminals to display your name, address and other information, they cannot remove your information directly, as a matter of fact, they have to forward your request to their data providers, this is a length process. And no website would tell you where their data feed comes from – their business secrets.

Even if you have found the data source providers, it’s not easy to opt-out your information. Keeping and selling your personal information is their business. It costs a lot of money and efforts to attain, maintain, and update millions of personal records, they need to sell these records to get their money back.

Removing your personal information from these powerful online databases by yourself will take time and efforts. Another reason why it takes so long to hide your information was because some search sites require you to send a formal removal request through a regular U.S. mail. Of course, it can take weeks to get an answer or no answers at all. It makes us wonder why would they want to take this traditional approach in the days of Internet and electronic age. Of course, the laws have not changed much to take into consideration of digital Internet information age. To get immediate results, you may consider to use professional companies to help you as will be discussed later.

After my extensive research, the following are some major players in people search on the Internet (not inclusive):

(1) Intelius.com
(2) Acxiom.com
(3) USsearch.com
(4) Yahoo.com’s People Search
(5) Google.com
(6) ZabaSearch.com
7) PeopleFinder.com

There are several other popular people search sites Squidoo.com doesn’t allow to list their names here.

To stop people from getting your personal information, we will discuss people search sites and data sources such as 411.com, Intelius, Acxiom, US Search, Peoplefinder, Yahoo.com, Whitepages.com, whowhere.com, zabasearch.com, privateeyes.com, infospace.com and many others in the next section. One section is dedicated to deleting your information from Google search engine.

Procedures to Remove Your Name & Personal Information from Internet 

Remove Negative Search and Remove Unwanted Information

With hundreds of people search databases and sites contain your personal information, removing your name and personal data from the Internet is a tedious task. As we mentioned above, you don’t need to go through all these sites to remove your information from the Internet. You need to go to the data sources to stop personal information from being searched by others. This is what this article is trying to accomplish – help you get your information off the Internet.

(1) Intelius is a most well-known people search engine on Internet, its targets every Internet visitor. Many background search websites are affiliated with Intelius. Many popular people search websites are associated with Intelius. Intelius sells background information to anybody on anyone regardless who you are (unless you take an action to block it). The famous DateCheck site is also hosted by Intelius. Their reports include your name, address, date of birth, court records, unlisted or mobile number, and other personal info as described in the last section. You can search personal records by name, SSN, or by phone number, etc through Intelius.

As a courtesy, Intelius can ‘opt out’ your specific information from the Intelius’s Search service. Your name as it appears in a particular record and the associated identifying information such as your address and phone number will be suppressed.

To remove your personal information from Intelius, they need some documents from you to confirm your identity. There are two ways to show your identity: (1) You would need to fax a copy of your driver license, you can cross-out your photo and license number, they only require your name, address and DOB; (2) Send them a notarized form confirms your identity.

At Intelius’s website, under their Privacy section, there are instructions on how to remove your personal information from Intelius.

(2) Acxiom.com is probable the biggest personal information data provider behind the scene. It has been described as “one of the biggest companies you’ve never heard of.” I used to trade its stock – ACXM. From reading their 10Q and 10K annual reports, I learned all big search engines such as Google.com, Yahoo.com, Lycos.com, WhoWhere.com etc are powered by Acxiom. Last year, Acxiom generated over $1.2 billion revenue from selling personal information. If you want to remove your private information from major search engines like Google or Yahoo, this is the first step you should take – have Acxiom remove your personal information from its data source either through your own effort or through other online personal information removal websites.

Acxiom has two databases. One database provide background check for businesses and law enforcements, and another database is provided for general public which powers the search engines. The data for businesses and law enforcements includes very sensitive financial information and social security numbers, your personal information cannot be removed from this database, but you can select to remove your personal information from the general public database. You can make such a request through email or phone call. Visit Acxiom website for details on how to remove your data from Acxiom or email privacy@acxiom.com, check their Privacy Statement. Be warned, it won’t be easy to get it done without giving them more personal information first.

(3) US Search : You might have heard or seen US Search from TV or radio advertisements. Many websites are affilated with USsearch. Like Intelius, they sell your background information to anyone. You can make a request to remove your personal records from them via a postal mail. You need to include your name and DOB in the mail letter. In addition, they want you to list the former addresses of 15 years as well as the aliases you use. As readers pointed out, US Search also require you to pay to remove. The best way to get updated information is go to US Search and check out its new Privacy Policy.

(4) WhitePages.com – just like a regular hard copy white page book, whitepages.com has an online directory which is available to anyone on Internet. The White page lists your name and address in its search results if your phone number is not under unlisted number. This information is not more serious than others mentioned above. Most info can be found on hard copy phone books. You can remove your information via an online form avaliable on their website. In the form, you fill in your name, city, and state, and give a reason to remove, in the drop down list, you can select General Privacy Concerns as the reason to remove. Of course, the most serious personal information can be found at its Sponsor links after your name.

(5) Yahoo and Lycos’s People Search are also powered by Acxiom. If you just want to remove very basic search info from Yahoo, visit Yahoo Privacy Policy .

(6) Peoplefinders.com is a People Search site actually associated with Intelius. The company helps people find family members, friends, classmates, military buddies, old flames and most anyone else in the United States. People Finders also provides more than 40 years worth of historical records. Peoplefinders.com require you to write a letter and signed by you with the following information in the letter, your name, address, former addresses going back up to 20 years. Refering to Peoplefinders.com ‘s private policy for details on opt-out process.

(7) Anywho.com, Address.com, Infospace.com, 99lists.com, Peoplelookup.com, Phonebook.com, thepublicrecords.com, Zabasearch.com, backgroundcheckgateway.com, etc are all linked Intelius on personal background information check. Most of these sites provide phone number and address search only, but background and personal information check is done through Intelius.

(8) If you concerned about name/address search at ZabaSearch (which shows your history of address changes), you can contact ZabaSearch to remove you information from their search engine. ZabaSearch has an option out feature right after you clicked your name.

This is just a partial list of the Internet people search sites, data providers, and search engines. It is obvious that going through these people search sites and search engines to remove your personal information is not easy, don’t even mention new sites pop up every week. As readers pointed out in the comment area, they had to go through a lot hassle to get them opt out, in most cases, they have to pay and fill out many paperwork to remove their names and personal information, it could take weeks if not months to clear personal information if even possible. So how to remove unwanted information about you from Google and people search engines besides do it yourself?

How to Remove Your Name and Information from Google Search Engine Results?

This section has just updated and is dedicated to remove information from Google search results – the most popular and widely used search engine on the Internet. A recent study shows about 54% of the adults used Google to search each other’s name and information. So how to prevent your name, phone, addresses, images, photos, bad comments, and other sensitive information from appearing on google search results?

Google’s main people search data feed is from Acxiom.com. Put your home phone number at Google search box, you can instantly see your name, home address, map, and driving direction etc. How to remove your name and address from this type of Google search results? If you want to remove your name, home phone number, and address from Google’s phone listings, it is pretty easy, here is the link, choose “privacy concern” as the reason to remove, in my experience, the next day, this information will disappear from its search results.

Google’s search engine robots search millions of websites every minute to collect and index information. Google’s website aggregates information already published on various websites, even if Google were able to eliminate the page in question from Google index through talks with Google or through a formal court order, it would still exist on other websites or other search engine databases.

Do you need to remove sensitive information from Google? Found a dead link in Google search results? Want to help Google to improve their SafeSearch filter? Sign up a Google account, give Google webmaster tool a try. This tool suppose to help webmasters to control information or image that appears in the Google search results. If you find a page in Google search results that lists your social security or credit card number, submit a webpage removal request. Google will contact the site’s hosting company to request that the page be taken down from the Web. Google also take steps to remove the information from its search results, you can also send a request to removals@ google.com to eliminate the sensitive personal information from Google index or cached pages.

If your name or other information appeared on a site that you don’t own or have control over. The first step is to contact the owner of that site or domain and ask him/her to remove or block the content. Only the website’s owner or webmaster can, by removing the content (or including code that blocks Google robots), prevent a page from appearing on Google search results. You can find who owns a domain or website through www.whois.net.

Is it possible to remove all my information from Google? If you want to delete or block all information related to your name from Google search results, it would be a very tough task and maybe hard to do so since there are other people may have the same name as you in the world, in some cases, a formal court order will help.

The following example could help you on removing your information from Google. In a recent news, Johnston County officials in North Carolina mistakenly posted a file with thousands of names, addresses, Social Security numbers and cell phone numbers on the county Web site. Of course, the speedy Google search robots indexed these personal information quickly. Even after the information was removed from the county website, the information was still available at Google search. To remove the information from Google, a judge ordered Google to remove remnants of personal information on Johnston County residents that still show up on Google search engine. Officials said the information might have been online for as much as six weeks before they found out, but getting the private information removed from Google search took a court order, and it is a tough task for Google to filter out too.

Again, all these private information won’t escape the greedy eyes of online data brokers, even after Google stopped indexing your information, your private information can still be in people search databases and websites.

How My Personal Information is Exposed?

How to Protect my Online Privacy?

Famous stars, celebrities, businessmen, or even regular Joe like you and me are at risk when our private and personal information is easily accessible from Internet.

To get information off the internet search, you have to understand there are many ways that your name, address, telephone number, date of birth, neighborhood information are ended up in online people search databases.

To protect personal information online, you should take actions to remove your personal information from Internet as mentioned above, but most important of all – be conscious of protecting your personal information daily is essential.

The people search databases are collected and purchased from various public or commercial data sources. Data brokers buying and selling personal information collected through state or county public records, paid surveys, sweepstakes, vacation giveaways, and through confidential sources. Have you filled out a detailed form to win a brand new car at a mall during Christmas shopping? That’s one of the ways data brokers to collect information on you. In situations when you provide information to the government, or to a private company — without a binding assurance that the information cannot be sold or distributed, that information, in effect, becomes part of the public domain sooner or later.

When your computer is connected to Internet, every move you make on your computer, including all of your Internet activities and email browsing, is being recorded whether you realize it or not. If someone else has access to the computer you use either physically or remotely, such as a friend, a boss, a co-worker, a spouse, or a hacker, they can see every single thing you’ve done on that computer and they don’t even have to know much about technology to accomplish such a feat. By simply using one of many common software applications available online, almost anyone can retrace every computer move you’ve ever made.

First, does your PC have an anti-spyware program installed? Does it have the latest updates and pattern files? Spyware (malware) are much worse than virus, their goal is to steal your personal information and take advantage of you. Make sure you have installed a good anti-spyware software program. A spyware can steal sensitive information stored on your PC or hijack your Internet activities. I’ve Spyware Doctor installed on my computer, it detects and removes more spyware and adware than any other ones I’ve tried.

So how to keep your Internet activities private? I’ve installed Evidence Eraser on my computer, the program monitors and protects my personal information by erasing my web footprints such as cookies, search histories, and passwords etc . It is very important DO NOT let malicious spyware steal your personal information.

Second, have you joined any social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Myspace or other social networks? You may have the public know too much information about you. These days, people are spending more and more time on tweaking Facebook or tweeting Twitter. People are updating their status and checking friends’ tweets constantly. That’s all well and good if you have time to spend, of course, on the flip side, the amount of personal information you share in real time with others, and the level of trust implicit with the social networking sites, do pose particular personal security and privacy problems.

Have you posted personal information you don’t want public to see on your personal profile? Make sure you have provided your private information as little as possible on your personal profile at these social networks. To checkout your profile, logout your account and check it as a regular visitor or another user. Some social networking websites DO expose and disclose your email address, name, and location information to the public by default. Very often, your personal information was published to Internet unintentionally.

In a recent study from security firm Sophos, they found that Facebook users reveal more than adequate personal information to new friends, including ones they really don’t even know or have never met in the past. Using fake profiles, Sophos sent out friend requests to 100 random Facebook users, more than 40 percent users blindly accepted the requests, giving the company access to their birth dates, e-mail addresses, phone number and addresses– quite private information you don’t want strangers to know.

The openness of Twitter–anyone can follow anyone else, and posts are indexed in search engines–makes it a nirvana for spammers and privacy intruders. You probable heard someone was tweeting from the start of vacation and during the vacation – telling the world include the theft where he is about, by the time the family got back from vacation, guess what happened? Not quite smart to tell your personal information on Tweeter.

Third, some websites use techniques to trick users to register their personal information.. Some users want to save a few dollars and provided their personal information. They don’t aware these information in turn were sold by data brokers at hundreds of dollars. These data brokers sell the same information to hundreds of people search databases. Save a few dollars could cost you hundreds of dollars later. Removing personal information from hundreds of Internet databases is not an easy task.

In a recent news reported by CNN, one of the popular social websites – Classmates.com is selling your credit card numbers and personal information to other credit card companies and businesses without telling you. You should not give any personal or financial information to classmates.com, for these have enrolled to classmates.com and paid their premium services, you should be aware what personal information you have given out to them.