“Make no mistake: this kind of harassment can be as frightening and as real as being followed and watched in your neighborhood or in your home.”
Vice President Al Gore
This from: 1999 Report on Cyberstalking: A New Challenge for Law Enforcement and Industry.
When this report was written, most of the Social Networking sites that are ubiquitous now did not even exist. The potential now for the average individual to be at risk has increased exponentially. Incidents of cyberstalking, identity theft and online character assassination have all skyrocketed, mirroring the growth of the Internet. Especially at risk are our youth who our more likely to be careless with thier personal information. The increase in cyberstalking and online character assassination among teens is alarming. Businesses are also at increasing risk as most now have an online presence, and disgruntled customers or employees have a convenient outlet for retaliation. A brand new industry has come into existence to help individuals and businesses deal with this problem: Online Reputation Management or ORM. I’ll be writing more about this in future articles.
~Matt Parker
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