Like it or not, you’re on the ‘Net

[The following LawPulse item by Illinois Bar Journal contributing writer Helen Gunnarsson give you a taste of what's coming in the as-yet-unpublished April IBJ .] What information about you is on the Internet? Do you know what’s out there? Is everything about you that’s available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection accurate? Is it consistent with how you want to present yourself? Maybe you posted something indiscreet when you were young and foolish – or maybe even when you were older and wiser you had a momentary lapse in cyber-judgment. Or maybe you’ve been perfectly professional and discreet in your online behavior, but someone else has posted something about you that you’re not happy about. Can you ever erase your traces on the Internet? Would you be prepared to advise a client who asked you that question? If you can find it, others can, too The short answer, says Detective Mike Bazzell of the Alton Police Department, is that you usually can’t delete information that’s already on the Internet. (For more from Bazzell, see this month’s cover story.) But, he says, making the effort doesn’t hurt and in some cases may help. And even if you can’t delete information, awareness of its existence can help you to manage the information and others’ reactions to it. Bazzell says, “I advise professionals to constantly check their own names to see what’s out there about them. If there’s something out there that you don’t like, you should take steps to try to remove it.” Bazzell, who presents on this very topic, recommends using the same techniques for finding what’s out there about you as he suggests for finding out information about others. “Anything that you can find out about yourself, someone else can find out if they’re looking for it.” Most personal information that’s on the Internet, Bazzell says, is there “because the person put it out there and didn’t realize that the whole world could see it.” Did you post some photos of yourself at a party with your buddies when you were still in school? Delete them, by all means, Bazzell says, but know that licensing agreements for the various social networking sites frequently provide that the social network companies own all of the postings, and companies are not obliged to remove information that they have lawfully obtained. “Once it’s grabbed by an archiving site such as Google Cache or Wayback, it’s generally out there forever, and you’re at their mercy.” Furthermore, he says, a business intelligence company such as Intelius.com can probably obtain those photos from the social network. Recognize, then, Bazzell says, that even if you delete a post from your profile, you can’t change whether anyone’s viewed it before you’ve done so, nor is it likely that you’ll ever get it removed from search engine archives. Bazzell provides some suggestions for minimizing the information’s exposure. First, he says, “find all the information that there is out there. Run your name in every possible search engine and document what you find.” Then, he says, go through the results one at a time. If you’ve found some information that’s inaccurate or that you’d prefer not to be available, either remove it yourself or ask the site owner to do so. Who’s looking for you? Going forward, if you use social media such as Facebook or MySpace, check your privacy settings, and change them, if necessary, to be sure that you know who can see your postings and that you’re comfortable with your settings. And whatever your privacy settings, “Before you post anything on the Internet, take a moment to think whether it should be posted forever for anyone to see. If you can’t answer yes to that, you shouldn’t post it,” Bazzell says. Even if you can’t erase information about yourself or bar access to it, can you at least find out who’s looking for or at your information? Tools to find this information out do exist, Bazzell says. Sites such as Zabasearch offer users the option of registering to be notified of who has done searches for their names. So, Bazzell says, if you’re looking for a person, or idly wondering what someone from your past is now up to, understand that you’re leaving your own traces that your subject may see. For more information, see Bazzell’s Web site at http://computercrimeinfo.com/index.html.