During my time as a reputation, privacy and media lawyer, I have
helped clients protect, safeguard, remedy and restore their
reputations and brands when they have come under attack. That
attack can come from anywhere, and is often unexpected. However, as
mentioned in my first piece, there are three main enemies to a
respectable reputation and a best-in-breed brand, and they are the
media, other people and ourselves.
The press is referred to as the bloodhound and watchdog of society,
sniffing out and alerting us to matters of public interest that
affect us; and if we are honest, more and more these days providing
us with gossip and tittle tattle that simply entertains us. The
British press in particular is robust and inquisitive and an
attack, or even a word out of place in the pages of a national
newspaper or specialist magazine, can seriously impact the manner
in which we would want to portray ourselves to the world. Imagine
the media hound taking a nasty nip out of your reputation or a
chunk out of your brand. The media is even more dangerous today
than it once was, as we live in a world where information anywhere,
is information everywhere, and where brand-busting allegations can
be communicated over the internet to hundreds, thousands and
millions of people at the touch of a button.
Other people are brand enemies too. Today, it is not just editors
and reporters with some modicum of legal knowledge and an interest
in staying on the right side of the law who publish online. Citizen
journalists, keyboard warriors and indeed anyone with access to a
computer can be a publisher and anyone with a smartphone can be a
photographer. With little knowledge of the law of defamation, data
protection, privacy, harassment (the list goes on) and even less
interest in it, 'other people' can put our reputations, our
brands and our privacy at risk; those others can be friends,
family, and strangers alike.
Sadly, our third nemesis is ourselves. We fling with gay abandon
up against the wall of the internet, information about ourselves
and others with little thought of the consequences. The younger
generation has a propensity for brand self-harm by living their
lives out online and digitally documenting their every move,
thought and deed. But what impact is this having on our brand when
a moment of madness from the past, an unfortunate political view, a
thoughtless musing, comes back to haunt us many years on, and
cannot be expunged?
So we see how we are at risk, but how do we protect ourselves from
these enemies? How do we restore our reputations and better our
brands, if and when they have been damaged? I set out below some
thoughts for you to take away. In doing so, I say this: we all live
busy lives these days, juggling life and work, children and
partner, fun and responsibility. Our big and full to capacity
brains, dealing as they do with major concepts and concerns, can
sometimes fail to think about the little things that we can do to
help ourselves. So whether these be major eye-openers or
Mickey-Mouse reminders, I hope that these tips can find their way
into your busy heads and your busy lives, and help you keep your
personal brand as fresh as a Daisy (now, isn't that a perfume
by Marc Jacobs...?)
Reputation restoration
Send is not your friend – We all dash off emails, texts, tweets, even posts and blogs these days, as if we were having a quick chat over the coffee machine. But beware; these publications are permanent and can land you in water as hot as the kettle you are boiling for your favourite cuppa. Re-read your first draft before pressing send to pick up mistakes or hot-headed responses; review long email strings that you might forward to a new recipient, in case there are hostages to fortune buried deep inside; carefully check your intended email and text recipients – is that the correct John/Jon/Jane? – to avoid embarrassment at best and serious damage at worse.
Information is power – If you don't know what is on the online ether, you can't protect yourself if there are dangers lurking there. Regularly monitor through online audits, what information is being published about you, your family or your business; pressure test what can and should be removed on legal grounds. If you are going to act, act fast; when you have identified seriously inaccurate and damaging publications, complain to the authors, notify the publishers, use notice and take-down procedures, take legal advice. Don't believe that damaging statements will just go away without action – they won't, but will be picked up and repeated by reporters, customers and competitors and soon the rumour will be your reputation.
Privacy protection
Limit your exposure – Think of your privacy like an old glass egg-timer; once you allow the sands of privacy to seep from the top into the public domain bowl below you will find it much harder to limit the flow should others infringe your rights. Think carefully before publishing any private information on any social media site, or disclosing it to others for that matter by word of mouth; keep your privacy settings high on any social media sites that you do use; carefully select and restrict the class of people to whom photos and private and/or family related chat is sent. Your 'friends' do not always turn out to be so friendly...
A stitch in time saves nine – Regularly monitoring the online space for leaks of private and confidential information and photos posted without your consent puts you in the best position to stem the flow later and to continue that metaphor, try to turn that egg-timer upside down. Before it's too late, and your privacy is no longer capable of protection, move quickly to remove unauthorised data from the internet. To protect yourself further from others, think about requiring employees to agree to social media policies; contractors to sign confidentiality agreements; and even family members to consider what privacy means to them and agree a family code or creed, including acceptable social media parameters and reputation and privacy conduct.
Cyber health and safety
Digital fingerprints – We leave a trail
of digital prints from our every outing across the keyboard and
cannot realistically hope to hop safely from one website to
another, to send emails or tweets, to make purchases online and to
make calls on our portable devices, without doing so. But knowing
that a silver snail-trail is left behind us, we can do our best to
limit its impact. We should use unique passwords, vary them
regularly, never give them to third parties, and certainly not
write them down or input them into our mobile devices (although I
am sure we all do!). Our identity and security can be at risk when
we scatter information about ourselves like pieces of a jigsaw:
limit the exposure of social security numbers, the names of a first
pet or favourite place, our mother's maiden name, information
about birthdays and trips abroad and take care when using GPS
enabled devices.
The best laid plans – The best laid plans of
mice and men often go awry. If your best attempts at
self-protection go wrong and you feel exposed, consult cyber
security firms to stress test systems at home and at work; take
advice on putting measures in place where security is insufficient.
In the event of a security breach, act fast to plug the gap: seek
privacy injunctions, request the removal of data online, obtain
orders to freeze assets where they have been stolen, and engage
with law enforcement authorities where there are continuing thefts
of identity.
First published in Minerva Trust's Female Focus on 10th
December 2015.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.