Have you ever typed your name into Google? A recent survey commissioned by Microsoft on the subject of online reputation revealed that both Germans and French tend to Google themselves to find information posted about them. The survey, which involves interviews with over 2,400 hiring and recruitment managers and consumers from the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, was conducted by Cross-Tab on December 2009. It was released to coincide with the International Data Privacy Day, a special day that aims to raise awareness for consumers around privacy issues.
The report noted that only 42 per cent of U.S. consumers have used a search engine to search for information posted about them. This figure is slightly higher than in the U.K., but far less than in Germany (59 per cent) and France (56 per cent). It’s almost impossible to determine the main reason why only a third of Britons have Googled themselves whereas Germans are very concerned of their online reputation.
Besides making frequent checks on search engines to see if there are any negative or offensive comments posted about them, some of the common strategies embraced by consumers to monitor their online reputation included using alerts to notify them of mention of their name or information; employing an online reputation management company; checking a credit report; checking to see what other people say about them online; establishing privacy settings on social networking sites; choosing not to post specific content anywhere online; and contacting a website administrator to remove unflattering or untrue content.
In today’s world where information is easily obtained with a click on the mouse, companies and employers can easily and anonymously collect information using Google or Facebook to judge whether a job candidate is trustworthy or not.
