Reputation.com

Last updated
Reputation
Company typePrivate
Industry Online reputation management, digital marketing
Founded2006
Founders Michael Fertik
Headquarters
Redwood City, California
,
U.S.
Key people
Joe Burton, CEO
Number of employees
490
Website reputation.com

Reputation (formally Reputation.com and ReputationDefender) is a business-to-business online reputation management and customer experience management company headquartered in San Ramon, California. [1] The company claims its software-as-a-service platform helps businesses monitor and respond to online reviews, social media, and surveys; analyze customer sentiment; and collaborate to make operational improvements.

Contents

History

Reputation.com was founded as ReputationDefender by Michael Fertik [2] in 2006. [3] In January 2011, the company changed its name from ReputationDefender to Reputation.com as its focus changed to enterprise services. [4] The business-to-consumer product line continued to be sold under the ReputationDefender name. In 2018, the business-to-consumer subsidiary was sold, along with related assets and liabilities. Joe Fuca, former DocuSign vice president and FinancialForce president, was named as CEO in August 2018. [5]

In 2018 the company sold the ReputationDefender business line and related assets and liabilities to the Stagwell Group. The sale included all consumer-related businesses, including its privacy- and reputation-related services for individuals. [6] ReputationDefender was acquired by Norton in 2021. [7]

In March 2020, Reputation.com announced the appointment of Rebecca Biestman as the company's new CMO. [8]

ReputationDefender and early services

Under the brand ReputationDefender and up until 2018, the company offered online reputation management services, which according to author Lori Andrews charges clients to remove items about them from the Internet with "no guarantee of success." Early cases where the company sought to remove photographs from the Internet, for example, removed about two thirds of the copies from the web, but could not remove the remainder. Websites like Spokeo were compensated for individuals they direct towards ReputationDefender who become ReputationDefender clients. Fatrik (the founder of ReputationDefender) had stated that this arrangement put Spokeo in a position that was capable of profiting from adding negative material about those with profiles on their site. [9] [10] [11] The company often contacted the operators of websites hosting negative content about the client, asking them to remove the information. [2] According to TheWall Street Journal, the letters "don't make threats... but instead try to appeal to recipients' sense of fairness." [2] ReputationDefender charged for increases in the severity of the language used. [9] It generally could remove newspapers or court records. [12]

The company initially charged about fifteen dollars per client, and has asked for at least $1,000 a year for its services. [9] [13] In 2007, it introduced a $10,000 service for executives. [14] Some of the company's software included scoring systems used to identify consumer information and generate reputation scores for individuals. [15] It had software that located websites where an individual's personal data was unknowingly listed and attempted to get it delisted. It can also tracked online reviews and contacted customers to solicit for positive reviews, but could also hide legitimate criticisms about a company, which the Fatrik had stated is a legitimate criticism of its business model. [16] The company served industries including healthcare, retail, automotive, restaurants, and property management. Significant publicly disclosed clients include Banner Health, BMW, Ford Motor Company, Hertz, General Motors, Sutter Health, US Bank and as of 2017 had approximately 750 other enterprise customers in 77 industry verticals. [17] [18]

Reputation.com services

After the sale ReputationDefender in 2018, [6] Reputation.com has reestablished itself as a software-as-a-service provider.

Reception

In 2012, BusinessWeek noted that "Reputation.com scam" was an autocompleted phrase when typing the company's name into the Google search engine and that many unfavorable search results were hidden on the second page of search results for the keyword "Reputation.com". The autocompleted phrase is a tactic for Reputation.com to hide any reviews about the company that label it a scam, even if legitimate. [10]

According to The New York Times , Reputation.com is popular, but controversial, due to its efforts to remove negative information that may be of public interest. [19] According to Susan Crawford, a cyberlaw specialist from Cardozo Law School, most websites will remove negative content when contacted to avoid litigation. [3] TheWall Street Journal noted that in some cases, writing a letter to a detractor can have unintended consequences, though the company makes an effort to avoid writing to certain website operators that are likely to respond negatively. [2] The company's CEO says it respects the First Amendment and does not try to remove "genuinely newsworthy speech." It generally cannot remove major news stories from established publications or court records. [3]

In 2008, former AutoAdmit administrator Anthony Ciolli filed a lawsuit against Reputation.com, among other defendants. [20] [21] The suit was in response to a lawsuit brought against Ciolli by two Yale Law School students for being defamed on the Internet message board, which is a forum for current and prospective law school students. [22] Ciolli claims to have lost a job offer as a result of negative publicity from the original suit. [22]

In a 2009 paper in the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, law professor Ann Bartow said Reputation.com exploited the harassment of women on the Internet for media attention. [23]

Two months after the company was founded, ReputationDefender was hired to remove online images of 18-year-old Nikki Catsouras's lethal car accident, which police said was leaked by an officer. The company was able to get the images taken down on about 300 out of 400 websites. The New York Post said their effort was "surprisingly effective" but raised concerns that its polite letters were resulting in censorship of material offensive to their clients. [9] Newsweek said it was ineffective. ReputationDefender said removing the images was an "unwinnable battle". [24]

Related Research Articles

Spyware is any software with malicious behavior that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user by violating their privacy, endangering their device's security, or other means. This behavior may be present in malware and in legitimate software. Websites may engage in spyware behaviors like web tracking. Hardware devices may also be affected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telemarketing</span> Method of direct marketing

Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products, subscriptions or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call. Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone via automatic dialing.

Consumer privacy is information privacy as it relates to the consumers of products and services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terms of service</span> Legal agreement for a service

Terms of service are the legal agreements between a service provider and a person who wants to use that service. The person must agree to abide by the terms of service in order to use the offered service. Terms of service can also be merely a disclaimer, especially regarding the use of websites. Vague language and lengthy sentences used in these terms of service have caused concerns about customer privacy and raised public awareness in many ways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Customer service</span> Provision of service to customers

Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but towards the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that of increasing revenues. The perception of success of the customer service interactions is dependent on employees "who can adjust themselves to the personality of the customer". Customer service is often practiced in a way that reflects the strategies and values of a firm. Good quality customer service is usually measured through customer retention. Customer service for some firms is part of the firm’s intangible assets and can differentiate it from others in the industry. One good customer service experience can change the entire perception a customer holds towards the organization.

Reputation management, originally a public relations term, refers to the influencing, controlling, enhancing, or concealing of an individual's or group's reputation. The growth of the internet and social media led to growth of reputation management companies, with search results as a core part of a client's reputation. Online reputation management, sometimes abbreviated as ORM, focuses on the management of product and service search engine results.

Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations. Email marketing strategies commonly seek to achieve one or more of three primary objectives: build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness. The term usually refers to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing a merchant's relationship with current or previous customers, encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately, and sharing third-party ads.

Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storage, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and display of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Privacy concerns have been articulated from the beginnings of large-scale computer sharing and especially relate to mass surveillance.

A data broker is an individual or company that specializes in collecting personal data or data about companies, mostly from public records but sometimes sourced privately, and selling or licensing such information to third parties for a variety of uses. Sources, usually Internet-based since the 1990s, may include census and electoral roll records, social networking sites, court reports and purchase histories. The information from data brokers may be used in background checks used by employers and housing.

Netvibes is a French company that offers web services.

The eCRM or electronic customer relationship management coined by Oscar Gomes encompasses all standard CRM functions with the use of the net environment i.e., intranet, extranet and internet. Electronic CRM concerns all forms of managing relationships with customers through the use of information technology (IT).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ripoff Report</span> Anonymous complaints website

Ripoff Report is a privately owned and operated for-profit website founded by Ed Magedson. The Ripoff Report has been online since December 1998 and is operated by Xcentric Ventures, LLC which is based in Tempe, Arizona. In 2023 an Australian judge found the company purports to be a consumer review site but profits from extortive business practices.

Internet safety, also known as online safety, cyber safety and electronic safety (e-safety), refers to the policies, practices and processes that reduce the harms to people that are enabled by the (mis)use of information technology.

Spokeo is a people search website that aggregates data from online and offline sources.

Privacy-invasive software is software that violates the user's privacy, ranging from legitimate software to malware.

Do Not Track (DNT) is a formerly official HTTP header field, designed to allow internet users to opt-out of tracking by websites—which includes the collection of data regarding a user's activity across multiple distinct contexts, and the retention, use, or sharing of data derived from that activity outside the context in which it occurred.

Online presence management is the process of creating and promoting traffic to a personal or professional brand online. This process combines web design, and development, blogging, search engine optimization, pay-per-click marketing, reputation management, directory listings, social media, link sharing, and other avenues to create a long-term positive presence for a person, organization, or product in search engines and on the web in general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Fertik</span> American internet entrepreneur and privacy advocate

Michael Fertik is an American internet entrepreneur and privacy advocate known for pioneering the industry of online reputation management. He is the founder, current executive chairman, owner and former CEO of Reputation.com, Inc. a Redwood City technology company that sends take-down requests to websites hosting embarrassing content, attempts to influence search results, and help clients obtain positive reviews. He advocates that the internet be cautious to respect the privacy and reputations of people and businesses.

Do Not Track legislation protects Internet users' right to choose whether or not they want to be tracked by third-party websites. It has been called the online version of "Do Not Call". This type of legislation is supported by privacy advocates and opposed by advertisers and services that use tracking information to personalize web content. Do Not Track (DNT) is a formerly official HTTP header field, designed to allow internet users to opt-out of tracking by websites—which includes the collection of data regarding a user's activity across multiple distinct contexts, and the retention, use, or sharing of that data outside its context. Efforts to standardize Do Not Track by the World Wide Web Consortium did not reach their goal and ended in September 2018 due to insufficient deployment and support.

A privacy seal is a type of trust seal or trustmark granted by third party providers for display on a company's website. Companies pay an annual fee to have an image of the third party provider's seal pasted onto their homepage or privacy policy page. Users can oftentimes click on the seal and be redirected to the web assurance seal service's website which verifies the validity of the privacy seal. They are meant to act as a visual assurance for consumers that the website in question meets a certain standard of privacy. The idea of a privacy seal originates with its physical manifestation – companies have long sought seals of approval like Good Housekeeping to be placed on their tangible products in order to draw in customers who value "quality". While all web assurance seal services follow the guidelines set by the Federal Trade Commission, some providers may have additional requirements. Checks are then conducted on a regular or random basis to ensure compliance. Privacy seals can be applied to various types of e-commerce websites. Some seal providers even create a special privacy seal that is geared toward a certain product like mobile apps or accounting. There are many privacy compliance technology companies, most notably TRUSTArc, CPA Canada WebTrust, PwC Privacy and BBBOnline.

References

  1. ↑ "Our Story".
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lavallee, Andrew (June 13, 2007). "Firms Tidy up Clients' Bad Online Reputations". The Wall Street Journal.
  3. 1 2 3 Gilbertson, Scott (7 November 2006). "Delete Your Bad Web Rep". Wired. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  4. ↑ "ReputationDefender Changes Name To Reputation.com". Dow Jones & Company, Inc. January 14, 2011. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Reputation.com hires former DocuSign, FinancialForce exec as CEO to help with shift to enterprise model". www.bizjournals.com.
  6. 1 2 "Term Sheet - Thursday April 5". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  7. ↑ "NortonLifeLock Acquisition". ReputationDefender. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  8. ↑ Inc, Reputation com (2020-03-11). "Reputation.com Welcomes Rebecca Biestman as Chief Marketing Officer". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2020-03-11.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  9. 1 2 3 4 Lori Andrews (10 January 2012). I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy. Simon and Schuster. p. 42. ISBN   978-1-4516-5051-8.
  10. 1 2 Tom McNichol (2012-02-02). "Fixing the Reputations of Reputation Managers". Businessweek. Archived from the original on February 6, 2012.
  11. ↑ Greenburg, Andy (May 15, 2008). "Covering the worlds of data security, privacy and hacker culture". Forbes.
  12. ↑ "Internet Sheriff". Harvard magazine. September–October 2010.
  13. ↑ Hindman, Nate (February 2, 2012). "Google Problems? BrandYourself Helps You Control Search Results of Your Name". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Web Attack". Bloomberg Businessweek. April 6, 2007. Archived from the original on April 8, 2007. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  15. ↑ "A Vault for Taking Charge of Your Online Life", The New York Times, December 8, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Reputation.com spots, cleans up online blemishes". Biz Journals. July 13, 2012. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  17. ↑ Barkholz, David (January 24, 2015). "Reputation.com managing online reputation for Ford dealers". AutoNews.com. Automotive News. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  18. ↑ Wang, Shirley (June 25, 2017). "What Doctors Are Doing About Bad Reviews Online". WSJ.com. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
  19. ↑ Singer, Natasha (December 8, 2012). "A Vault for taking charge of your online life". The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  20. ↑ "IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA" (PDF). Dmlp.org. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  21. ↑ Jones, Leigh (10 April 2009). "Former AutoAdmit Exec's False-Suit Claim Lives On". The National Law Journal. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  22. 1 2 Nolan, Christan (26 March 2008). "Yale Law School Defamation Case Explores Anonymous Web Site Users' Free Speech Rights". The Connecticut Law Tribune. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  23. ↑ Bartow, Ann. "Internet Defamation as Profit Center" (PDF). Harvard Journal of Law & Gender. pp. 383–430.
  24. ↑ "One Family's Fight Against Grisly Web Photos". Newsweek. 24 April 2009. p. 3. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.