ReputationDefender
Press Room

Students are some of the most active users of social networking. They spend much of their time creating and fine-tuning their online personas. However, the digital identity that impresses friends may not have the same positive impact on college administrators or potential employers. Recruiters and hiring managers are reviewing candidates’ online reputations; will the information they discover help or hinder?

MyReputation Student from ReputationDefender is used by graduates and students to create an online presence that showcases their professional accomplishments and career goals. With MyReputation Student, individuals receive personalized online domains, proactive online reputation monitoring, reports on who is searching them and support for improving their professional online reputation.

NEWS FACTS

ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik shares practical online reputation tips and advice for college graduates looking to land a job (included below).

• Hiring managers and college administrators check social network profiles and online reputations.
• 79% of recruiters and hiring managers have reviewed online information posted to social networking sites and blogs in the screening process (Microsoft, 2010).
• 70% of recruiters and employers have rejected an applicant based on the information they found online (Microsoft, 2010).
• 75% of college students’ Facebook profiles are inappropriate (Pace University, 2011).

ReputationDefender also offers free solutions that every student can use:

• PrivacyDefender makes it easy for students to control their Facebook privacy, adding a layer of privacy protection to their social networking.
• uProtect.it encrypts Facebook messaging and photos, giving users control over who sees their personal messaging and information.
• ReputationAlerts provides monitoring and updates about how individuals appear online.

TIPS FROM CEO and FOUNDER, MICHAEL FERTIK:

Beware of regrettable digital tattoos: Everything you tweet, post and tag online is part of a permanent digital record tied to your name. Don’t post content now that could come back to bite you. You can also use our uProtect.it, a free privacy solution to encrypt and permanently delete your social network messaging, therefore ensuring you’re not creating those regrettable tattoos in the first place.

Know your “friends”: Your friends and social network connections impact your brand. Employers and recruiters aren’t just monitoring your online presence, but also those of your close contacts. It’s easy for hiring managers to conclude that if your friends are deadbeats, you’re a deadbeat, too.

Brand yourself: Use social media to your advantage. Have a Twitter feed, a blog or other relevant Web presence that speaks to your professional experience. If you’re interested in a career in marine biology, make that a part of your profile, join relevant online clubs or communities and comment on relevant articles or studies in your field of interest.

REPUTATIONDEFENDER RESOURCES

Please use this link to access ReputationDefender

• More on MyReputation Student
• ReputationDefender on Twitter
• Michael Fertik on Twitter

ReputationDefender Resource Center:

How Your Online Reputation Can Lead to Job Offers

How Your Online Social Network Could Cost You a New Job

How To Post Your Resume Online Securely

ABOUT REPUTATIONDEFENDER

ReputationDefender’s mission is to empower individuals and businesses to control their privacy and reputation online. Formerly ReputationDefender®, ReputationDefender was founded in 2006 and is the pioneer of online reputation management solutions. The company is recognized by World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer 2011 for its global technology leadership and innovation. The privately held company is headquartered in Silicon Valley, has an office in Germany and serves customers in more than 100 countries.

ReputationDefender, provider of solutions for online reputation management and privacy control to individuals and businesses, today announced it has been included in the list of “Cool Vendors” in the Gartner, Inc., Cool Vendors in Risk Management, Privacy and Compliance, 2011 by Carsten Casper et al, April 15, 2011. The annual “Cool Vendors” report serves to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services for businesses. The report is developed by Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT), the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company.

“It’s now an imperative that businesses monitor, manage and measure their reputations online. This is no longer something companies can afford to ignore, and it’s too technically complex and time-consuming for them to handle on their own,” said Michael Fertik, CEO and Founder of ReputationDefender.

According to the “Cool Vendors” report, “Sophisticated tools are necessary to manage vendors, monitor virtualized environments, locate stores of sensitive information, understand large amounts of regulatory knowledge and control your online reputation.”

In the digital age, an online reputation has an increasingly strong impact on a company’s market value, as well as an influence on selling more products and services and attracting more hires or partners. With much of a company’s value based on its reputation, threats to reputation are a critical risk and businesses and individuals alike are taking steps to control and improve their reputations online. Through ReputationDefender’s solutions for online reputation management, businesses benefit from a full spectrum of reputation and privacy solutions, including: proactive reputation management; innovative privacy control solutions for social networking; a service to safeguard and remove private, personal information from the Internet; and protection for false and malicious online attacks.

The company was recently honored as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2011 for its technological innovation and global commitment to online privacy and reputation management solutions.

About ReputationDefender

ReputationDefender’s mission is to empower individuals and businesses to control their privacy and reputation online. Formerly ReputationDefender®, ReputationDefender was founded in 2006 and is the pioneer of online reputation management solutions. The company is recognized by World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer 2011 for its global technology leadership and innovation. The privately held company is headquartered in Silicon Valley, has an office in Germany and serves customers in more than 100 countries.

About Gartner’s Cool Vendor Selection Process

Gartner’s listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose.

Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn’t do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner’s interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.

ReputationDefender extends its leadership role in the Internet privacy and reputation sector this week from its post at the World Economic Forum (WEF). Michael Fertik, founder, CEO and leading cyberthinker on digital security and reputation, will be representing the company as Technology Pioneer Award Winner 2011. Fertik was also recently named to the WEF Global Agenda Council on Internet Security for his work in the field of Internet privacy.

At the event, Fertik is moderator for the session, Rethinking Personal Data: New Value through End-user Control, Transparency and Trust, on Friday January 28th at 8:00am – 10:15 am, CET. The session brings together leaders in telecommunications, IT, media, entertainment and information industries to create a global agenda for Internet privacy reform with actionable next steps. He is also speaking in the session, Industries Under Cyberseige: Time for Action, on Saturday, January 29th 9:00am – 10:00am, CET.

ReputationDefender will be commenting live from WEF with guest columns in Harvard Business Review (HBR), Fortune, Newsweek, Reuters and Washington Post.

About ReputationDefender

ReputationDefender’s mission is to empower individuals and businesses to control their privacy and reputation online. Formerly ReputationDefender®, ReputationDefender was founded in 2006 and is the pioneer of online reputation management solutions. The company is recognized by World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer 2011 for its global technology leadership and innovation. The privately held company is headquartered in Silicon Valley, has an office in Germany and serves customers in more than 100 countries.

Today at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Technology Pioneer Award recipient, ReputationDefender, formerly known as ReputationDefender®, announced the launch of a unique, new privacy application, called uProtect.it which protects the privacy and security of personal communications within social networks. The patent pending, BETA application is free and allows users to encrypt Facebook messages, status updates and pictures and store that data outside of the Facebook application so that it cannot be shared with third parties.

“Our customers have been asking for help controlling the personal information that they share on social networks, particularly Facebook,” said Michael Fertik, Founder and CEO of Reptuation.com. “uProtect.It allows users the ultimate in social networking data protection; control over who sees it, how long it can been viewed and when it is permanently deleted.”

Once uProtect.It is installed, users can customize the friends with whom they want to share messages and photos, each time they post. The messages appear on the social network via a private and protected encrypted code. Users also control the “digital half-life” of the posts, assigning an expiration date either immediately or after a set date. uProtect.It’s encryption technology means that the message is only visible to those that are selected; the data is no longer hosted on the Facebook platform, making it off limits to third party developers, advertisers and other outside interests.

uProtect.It (BETA) features and benefits:

Customize message and photo visibility: Not all messages or photos are meant for all audiences. With uProtect.It, users choose who can and cannot see their photographs and wall posts. This is more than just protection for an encrypted one-on-one conversation (that feature already exists). It’s now easy and convenient for users to tailor their wall post communications to reach the audiences they want and prevent even the social networking from having access to the posted content.

Set a time stamp on messages: Wall posts, photos, and messages don’t need to exist forever on social networks like Facebook. With uProtect.It, users can decide now or in the future, when they want messages to expire.  They can individually tailor their settings for extra precision.

Ensure message and photo privacy: By removing third parties from the process, ReputationDefender’s uProtect.It ensures the message is never available on the open Web. The wall post is protected via ReputationDefender’s Data Privacy Vault™ data locker, and users can instantly and immediately choose to permanently delete the message.

ReputationDefender now offers a full spectrum of reputation and privacy solutions, including: additional Facebook privacy controls (PrivacyDefender), proactive reputation management; a service to safeguard and remove private, personal information from the Internet; and protection for false and malicious online attacks.

uProtect.It is an easy-to-install bookmarklet, that requires only a simple drag and drop set-up. The bookmarklet supports all browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Basic instructions for uProtect.It available here: Protect Your Messages on Facebook.

Instructions on uProtect.It’s advanced features available here: Control Your Facebook Messages.

The ReputationDefender resource center has more advice on protecting your Facebook wall posts.

About ReputationDefender

ReputationDefender’s mission is to empower individuals and businesses to control their privacy and reputation online. Formerly ReputationDefender®, ReputationDefender was founded in 2006 and is the pioneer of online reputation management solutions. The company is recognized by World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer 2011 for its global technology leadership and innovation. The privately held company is headquartered in Silicon Valley, has an office in Germany and serves customers in more than 100 countries.

ReputationDefender, the global leader in online privacy and reputation management, today announced two new hires to its executive management team: Paul Kirincich will serve as Chief Financial Officer and Tiger Lan, Vice President Engineering. Veterans of Netflix and Plaxo, both executives join the company with backgrounds in leading disruptive technologies from the start-up stage to a mainstream audience.

“With the addition of these extremely accomplished new hires, we’ve solidified an impressive executive team that’s poised to take the company to its highest level of success,” said Michael Fertik, CEO and founder. “Paul Kirincich has an ideal combination of skills for ReputationDefender; he’s a polished CFO, a revenue driver and a savant when it comes to customer behavioral analytics, as demonstrated by his lasting impact at Netflix. And Tiger Lan possesses the vision and leadership needed to develop and scale innovative products during the company’s explosive growth stage.”

Paul Kirincich, CFO, joins ReputationDefender from his position as CFO at Extend Health, Inc., where he generated more than double the revenue growth within one year. Previously, Kirincich built the forecast and analytical team at Netflix, which provides the company its core competitive advantage and system on which it relies on today when making key business decisions. At ReputationDefender, Kirincich will draw on his expertise in managing high growth businesses and his deep knowledge of consumer subscription economics to lead the company’s expansion into new markets and services.

As Vice President Engineering, Tiger Lan is responsible for the technical development of the company’s rapidly growing suite of products. Lan’s expertise in recruiting and managing high performance engineering teams as well as delivering products designed for social networking and viral growth —as honed during his tenure as Director of Engineering at Plaxo— will be critical to his role leading ReputationDefender technology development. Prior to ReputationDefender, Lan served as Director of Engineering at Plaxo and held engineering and strategic development roles at Yahoo!, Microsoft and Ariba.

The company continues its fast-paced growth, driving new customer and partner acquisition in its position as the leader in online reputation management and privacy controls. In the past year, ReputationDefender has raised $24 million in venture funding from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, JAFCO Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

About ReputationDefender

ReputationDefender is the pioneer and global leader in online reputation and privacy management. The privately held company has advanced technology, unique business processes and a suite of products designed for all consumer segments — including professionals, small business owners, students, social Web enthusiasts, parents and more — that make it easier to control online reputations and protect against Internet stalking, identity theft/impersonation and other online threats. ReputationDefender has its headquarters in Silicon Valley, an office in Germany and serves customers in more than 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.reputationdefender.com.

ReputationDefender, the first comprehensive online reputation and privacy management company, today announced a new partnership agreement with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), which represents nearly 3100 companies. The partnership will allow ReputationDefender customers to easily manage their mailing preferences with DMA member companies.

ReputationDefender is the pioneer and global leader of a growing market geared toward protecting consumers’ privacy and helping them to accurately represent themselves online. As part of the DMA’s Commitment to Consumer Choice (CCC) program, ReputationDefender customers will also have the option to choose the types of catalogs, magazines, and other mail they receive from direct marketers.

“We are working with ReputationDefender as a result of their commitment to consumer choice and privacy, supporting the rights of individuals to control the information that reaches their homes,” said Senny Boone, SVP, Corporate and Social Responsibility at DMA. “At DMA, we are committed to consumer choice, and marketers are now making it quick and easy for people to control offers. We support entities such as ReputationDefender that are committed to building consumer trust in the marketing process across channels, a major driver of our economy.”

ReputationDefender has revamped the “Control Your Mail” section of its MyPrivacy product to allow customers to create exact specifications around the types of mail they would like to receive. With the update, customers are now able to make specific opt-in or opt-out choices for catalogues, and make categorical opt-outs from magazines, email, or other marketing offers like coupon books and discount programs.

Privacy PRO is a solution that was created to help consumers control the exposure of their information online. It works by removing personally-identifiable information (PII) from Web databases, preventing personal information from being sold or given away without express permission and providing protection from nosy individuals, credit fraudsters and identity thieves.

“Privacy and control are ReputationDefender customers’ top priorities. They want protection against identity theft and impersonation, but they are also very concerned about receiving unwanted marketing offers,” said Michael Fertik, CEO at ReputationDefender. “Our partnership with the DMA underscores their leadership in the area of consumer choice and privacy. Together, we are empowering consumers to increase their privacy. We plan to give our customers complete privacy control with new feature updates to MyPrivacy in the months ahead.”

About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today represents more than 3,100 companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 48 other nations, including nearly half of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In 2009, marketers — commercial and nonprofit — spent $149.3 billion on direct marketing, which accounts for 54.3% of all ad expenditures in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures will generate approximately $1.783 trillion in incremental sales. In 2009, direct marketing accounted for 8.3% of total US gross domestic product. Also in 2009, there were 1.4 million direct marketing employees in the US. Their collective sales efforts directly support 8.4 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 9.9 million US jobs.

The Power of Direct: Relevance. Responsibility. Results.

About ReputationDefender

ReputationDefender is the world’s only comprehensive online reputation and privacy management company. Through its suite of services, including MyReputation(SM), ReputationDefender(SM), MyChild(SM), and MyPrivacy(SM), ReputationDefender helps its customers manage and protect their online information. ReputationDefender also helps customers promote themselves and their businesses online. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Munich, ReputationDefender serves customers in over 40 countries and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, technology blogs like ZDNet and broadcast programming, including FOX News, ABC News, Good Morning America, The Today Show and Dr. Phil.

Media Contacts

Raksha Varma

The Horn Group for ReputationDefender
Email Contact
+1 415 905 4022

Lara Sasken
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