Info. on the Web – Is it really there forever?

Deleting your digital past — for good 

A serious issue about posting something on the Web – Does the information really stay there forever?  Say for instance – that you have assignments to post blogs for a class.  Naturally – you want to complete the assignments and don’t really hesitate to post items over the internet.  That is – until you read how hard it is to delete information that is posted on the web.  Anything posted on the web could become “an unsavory connection from your past. An annoying link to your name that’s dragging down your career. A spicy quote you tossed off to a reporter that you wish you could take back.”

The article also states – that it is pretty pointless to bring any legal action for libel to remove your name or information tied to your name from the WWW.  “The Communications Decency Act of 1996 gives almost total immunity to Web sites” – However, there is a company (ReputationDefender Inc.) that provides solutions for a fee to kind of – sort of – manage the online information/data related to your name in Google searches.   Reputation Defender, Inc.’s CEO claims that you can remove the information yourself – but it is easier for professionals to take care of the dirty work (after all the CEO has what some might call a vested interest in the Company – so promoting his company never hurts – free advertisement in a way). 

The group that wrote the article had someone (the ”WrongedGirl”) provide them with information that they wanted removed from the internet.  The group went through a lot of trouble to get it removed – but in the end they were able to remove the information about the WrongedGirl from the web. 

It still should make you think twice about posting information on the web.

Bully Blogging… and Internet Abuse/misuse….

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/11/03/angry.internet/index.html

It has clearly been stated in our Computer Information Systems class that Web 2.0 tools need to be used correctly to achieve their full potential.   The internet and Web 2.0 tools are breeding grounds for misuse and vandalism.  Some people feel that it is because the anonymity the Internet provides – come on – what kind of retaliation could be used especially when web users use a Jane/John Doe – the people that usually get hurt by web postings are not the actual posters.  The people that are severely impacted are the ones that the post is actually about.  Prior to the internet – you were accountable for your words and actions – web postings still have repurcussions today – just usually not for the people posting them.  There have been a number of postings that have seriously impacted lives of human beings – from murder and suicide to divorce and various other rumors in classrooms… Just some food for thought… “Whether the problem will get control of us, or we will get control of the problem, is in the way we face up to it, he says.  Anger, he says, is rolled up with anxiety and fear, and nothing creates more fear like a lack of understanding.” – psychiatrist Dr. Terry Eagan…