Repumatic is currently available for lawyers, teachers, doctors, and businesses, but it will soon be available for dentists, non-profits, and many other fields. The specialization of Repumatic is important because it helps to automate the process of online reputation management, which takes all of the guesswork and special skills out of the equation. This does not mean Repumatic is not a high quality product—it is.

Starting last week, domain addresses with the brand-new suffix .xxx became available for pornography sites, in addition to the .edu suffix used for schools, .com used for businesses and .gov used for government agencies. Many schools on the mainland are buying up potential porn addresses with their names in them to preserve their reputations, but Hawaii schools have not. KITV 4 News researched the ICM Registry website, where people can purchase .xxx online domain names for roughly $100 a year, and found the URL www.universityofhawaii.xxx was available for purchase as of late Monday morning. Same thing with www.UHManoa.xxx, meaning someone who runs a pornographic website could use one of these University of Hawaii names to make money.But then KITV 4 News found something interesting. A reporter entered “UHHotties” in the ICM website, and found the domain was not available, and had already been purchased. Same goes for “UHBabes” and “UHGirls.”So KITV 4 News contacted another U.H., the University of Houston in Texas. And a spokesman said that school had blocked more than 50 URLs, explaining why “UHHotties,” “UHBabes” and “UHGirls” were already taken.

Spending $5000 on overwhelmingly derogatory and negative domain names might seem a little over-protective, but it’s hardly surprising. The Internet is a chaotic place and people will use all sorts of methods to leverage traffic and embarrass others. Ultimately, this is about protecting a hard-earned reputation.

A federal judge in Portland, Ore., has ruled that a Montana blogger was not a journalist when she posted online that an Oregon lawyer acted criminally while a trustee in a real estate bankruptcy case.

Media observers said Wednesday the ruling points out how state shield laws and other laws protecting journalists have lagged behind developments in online media.

The ability of Michigan residents to criticize anonymously on the Internet is under fire following a ruling this week by an Ingham County judge, a national consumers’ rights group said Thursday.

That’s because in allowing the Thomas M. Cooley Law School to publicly name a blogger, the court is setting precedent in Michigan that would make it easy for powerful organizations or people to retaliate against those who need protection for bringing to light bad practices, said Paul Levy, an attorney with Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.

Lets hope the Internet Privacy Laws don’t crumble in the face of cases like this.

The IAB is calling on its members to display this innocuous icon on Web pages that are actually embedded with tracking cookies, Web beacons and other stealthy tools that help advertising networks track precisely where you go and with whom you associate on the Internet.

Internet privacy laws should be of some concern to everyone, and yet very few are ever educated on the subject.

As more people become more anonymous on the Internet, they are more shielded to participate in scams, illicit behavior and also to cyberbully. Internet legislators want a balance between anonymity and accessibility for law enforcement purposes. Even court records are available through the Internet.

Constitutional Law for Internet Privacy

Since no formal law exists in cyberspace, Internet users can find recourse through applicable laws in the government. There are some Amendments that address privacy, but none in the Constitution and none specifically on the Internet. Privacy according to lawmakers is known as a “penumbra right,” because it is not expressly written in the Constitution. The law is protected under the Bill of Rights, but not specifically.

Fourth Amendment, for instance, protects citizens from unwarranted search and seizure. Rules protecting privacy stored on an Internet access provider’s server are less protected than the files stored on the computer or separate hard drive at home. However, more federal laws are protecting web servers. Since all that is required is a search and seizure by the police to access files from a web server, many people feel that their files and privacy are not as secure as they would like. With the amount of information being saved about a user’s email and web browsing habits, more consumers are encouraging new legislation.

Spamming and Defamation

Spammers may often invade privacy by including links in the email that will install spyware on the person’s computer. Internet spamming cases have been successful in court. This is also another privacy issue. Defamation, libel and slander on the Internet is also an issue. These crimes are punishable in both civil and criminal suits.

Internet Anonymity

Internet anonymity guarantees that no third parties would have the ability to gain access to personally-identifiable information (P.I.I) without the expressed consent of the Internet user. All of this information is tracked when products are ordered online and when forms are filled out online. Consumers are fighting back against collecting cookies. Some software even blocks this type of collection of data.

In some instances, collecting data is legal through cookies. Cookies often help with convenience of filling out multiple forms of data. However, some clients find that companies offering this convenience are invasive and should not engage in these practices.

References:

• Net Attorney: http://www.netatty.com/privacy/privacy.html
• Internet Privacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_privacy
• FTC: http://business.ftc.gov/privacy-and-security