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Most People Track Their Reputation Online, Pew Study Shows

by Warren Riddle on May 27, 2010 at 09:00 AM

Narcissistic Online
The indulgent practices of Google-stalking and self-searching both surfaced as soon as Google was born, and statistics from three years ago already indicated that over half of all adults admitted to Google snooping. The proliferation of such search engine spying -- coupled with the innumerable amount of Web-related arrests, suspensions, firings and expulsions -- has apparently inspired people to finally protect and cloak their online reputations.

The Pew Research Center recently disclosed the results of an extensive survey that demonstrates that snooping has, unsurprisingly, continued to grow in popularity. But actively combating that surreptitious monitoring has also significantly escalated. Since Twitter's new archive permanently stores individual tweets, and OpenBook now reveals Facebook transparency, diligently protecting online identities and social networking practices has become an absolute necessity.

According to Pew's data, younger networkers dramatically lead the way in guarding their online reputations, as 18- to 29-year olds vastly outperform their elders when it comes to limiting the personal information that they disclose, updating their privacy settings, deleting unwanted comments, and removing their names and tags from compromising photographs.

Additional surveys estimate that 70-percent of potential employers research their applicants online, and frequently reject them because of what they find. Since Consumer Reports recently determined that 52-percent of adults dangerously over-share on social networks, the oblivious old-timers would do well to learn from the youngsters.

Pew did conduct this survey prior to the ongoing Facebook privacy fiasco, though, so be sure to consistently monitor Zuckerberg and crew for additional (and inevitable) alterations to the site's settings. [From: Pew Internet and MSNBC]

Tags: facebook, google, oversharing, PewResearchCenter, privacy, socialnetworking, survey, top, web

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