TrueRep

A buzz-worthy phrase of late has been ‘Your online footprint.’  Google alerts are filled with this concept and hit our inbox each afternoon with new information on the implications of our ‘online footprint.’  But do consumers really have an understanding of how much of their information is available online?  Or for that matter do they know how to manage it?

Imagine this, as a teenager in early-2000 you signed up for MySpace.  You added all your friends, interests and information to this page.  When you got into college you were over the moon that Facebook would be available to you.  Even before moving into your dorm you have your contact information, friends list and personal information stocked and your wall is full of friends posting about the most personal details. 

Late in college and in your early career you’d like a place for your professional information (LinkedIn), a place to share your interests (Pinterest), a place to share your most embarrassing music interests (Spotify), a place to show what place you’re at (Foursquare) and heck how about a place to update people on what you’re doing at the place you’re at (Twitter.)  It is not uncommon for a normal twenty something to have their information plastered on 7-8 massive social networks.

A common misconception online is that this information is protected.  The problem is with many of these networks it’s easy to miss or simply forget about the basic privacy settings provided which can allow any stranger to see any information you’ve provided.  This is a can of worms we’d prefer to remain closed.

With this and many other thoughts in mind Intelius has developed TrueRep.  TrueRep is a unique, innovative new product that helps answer the question, how do I manage my ‘online footprint?’

TrueRep is designed to help you:

• Learn what information is available about you online.
• Control your privacy by giving you the option to suppress your most recent contact information from appearing on Intelius websites.
• Track and manage your online reputation through TrueRep's proprietary Reputation Score.
• Add explanatory comments to background checks that others may order on you from Intelius websites.

It’s a reality that our information is spread throughout the web and it’s up to us to corral it, understand and control it.  TrueRep for the first time allows users to have access to their information in one central location.  Your ‘online footprint’ suddenly doesn’t seem so daunting.

-Ian Dinsmore

I made a small but embarrassing mistake recently. I wasn’t sure about the correct use of an uncommon pronoun, so I looked it up on a major search engine. The first result was from a reliable website, and it showed a definition that supported my use of the pronoun. It wasn’t until later, when my manager questioned the usage, that I actually went to the website and saw what hadn’t been visible in search results: that pronoun had been obsolete for almost five hundred years.

Oops.

This anecdote illustrates one of the dangers we all face online: as we navigate the Internet superhighway faster and faster, often paying less and less attention to the details of the information we encounter, it is all too easy to miss critical context. 

For me, the cost of doing this was a small error as a communications professional. But what if I’d been searching for a person, glanced at a search result from a credible source, and leapt to a conclusion about that individual? Or what if someone had done that to me? And what if the decision involved had potentially significant consequences—for example, whether or not to connect for professional networking or go out on a date?

You’ve read in recent posts about TrueRep, our new online reputation management service. My pitfall with the pronoun reinforced in my own mind the TrueRep message:

• Know what others can find about you online.
• Know what perception that information is likely to create.
• Know how to manage that information and perception.

With TrueRep, we’ve not only given you unique and powerful tools to achieve these three goals, but we’ve taken it one industry-leading step further, and given VIP subscribers the capability to add remarks to background checks on themselves that others purchase from Intelius. These remarks offer the chance to provide context that can significantly alter how information is perceived—just as finding out that a word is obsolete provides important context.

Our message with TrueRep is really the same one that we’ve chosen for Intelius: Live in the Know. Because you never know when someone may glance at a search result, or a people search or background check report, and leap to an erroneous conclusion. And the consequences of doing so may be far greater than using a Shakespearean pronoun during the Information Age.

Elisabeth DeVos
Marketing Communications Manager

The beta release of TrueRep has officially launched! Consumers are welcome to participate by going to www.truerep.com and signing up (trial is $9.95 per month). The beta period is expected to last several months with new features added during that time to provide more tools and value to subscribers. Intelius expects to launch TrueRep in the Spring of 2011.

TrueRep uses public records and commercially available information such as social network public profiles to give consumers insight into information available about them, and helps them understand how others might view them based on that information. It is designed for consumers to monitor and manage their online personal information, so they can feel more confident about their online persona.

TrueRep introduces a new tool for each subscriber called Reputation Score.  A subscriber’s Reputation Score is only viewable by them.  The score will initially be tallied based on 15 different parameters from an subscriber’s public profile based on three key areas – stability, trustworthiness and safety.  TrueRep will explain to each subscriber what their score means and how they can influence it based on personal preferences.

TrueRep is also a valuable service for small business owners.  In today’s tough economy, small business owners must be aware of the information about them online.  Consumers are now using the Internet to research people they do business with to ensure they are reputable.   TrueRep gives small business owners the ability to monitor what information is available about them and to promote themselves.

TrueRep is fundamentally about providing consumers awareness and control of their online reputation

 Awareness.  After proceeding through an authentication process, new subscribers are shown a summary of their background information available online. Content is presented in five categories: address history, personal information, professional information, criminal records and civil judgments.  This information represents the foundation of their digital persona and gives consumers full transparency of the public information – right or wrong – that is associated with them.

 Control.  TrueRep introduces several tools for subscribers that can be used to influence how others see them online.  The service will enable subscribers to suppress sensitive contact information, including two addresses and one phone number from their online profile so that anyone conducting a people search or background check on certain Intelius sites* will not be able to see that information.**  In the future, TrueRep will also enable subscribers additional tools to enable consumers to control their online reputation. 

 Promote. In addition to those tools, TrueRep will also empower subscribers to promote themselves if they wish.  Tools are provided so subscribers can improve Google results associated with their name and increase their visibility online.

Check out TrueRep today at www.truerep.com. TrueRep product feedback appreciated via the Customer Care form.

Visit us on Facebook and Twitter to learn more about the latest in digital information, online reputation, consumer threats, social media, practical solutions to everyday challenges and TrueRep news and promotions. 

*The Intelius people search sites included in the suppression capability are clearly listed in the Privacy tab of the TrueRep product.  Intelius will eventually include all its sites.  At the beginning of the beta period, however, only information from reports from Intelius.com, LookUpAnyone.com, PeopleLookUp.com and PublicRecords.com will be suppressed.  Additional sites will be added to this list as this service is integrated with those operating sites.

** The suppression feature in TrueRep allows a subscriber to suppress two addresses and one phone number from one profile they select.  There is the chance that the information a subscriber suppresses could be found in a search on one of the participating Intelius sites due to the fact that Intelius may have more than one profile attributed to a particular person or that new data has been added to a record.  For more information, please refer to the Intelius Privacy Policy –www.intelius.com/privacy/php.