TS – Freelance writer, editor and researcher

The Internet may seem like a harmless tool that is used for a number of business and social interactions – but think again. Hands up if you have Googled either your name or that of someone you know. Most of the time, the results would come up with pages where you have listed your details. But what happens if one day, someone posts some information about you that you are not aware of? Regardless of whether or not the content is posted in the name of fun; or for more sinister reasons – you may never see it. You could be completely oblivious to the fact that someone on another continent is using the photograph from your home page as their avatar on a dating site. They could even be using your name. How do you know? Well; you don’t if you are an average individual much like the other few billion of us out there.

There are so many things that circulate on the Internet, that sometimes people are lucky, and they find these things out when a co-worker sniggers as they walk past you in the hallway. Many web sites take photographs of people and comment on them – often in a rude and derisive manner. On a web site called Ugly Dress, there are some comments about the dresses and the people that wear them – all in the name of humour. The odds are that the women in these photographs are not even aware of the fact that they are being made fun of in this way. They may never know that someone has used their photograph on a web site such as that; and may even be refused when asked to remove the photograph.

So what happens if your co-worker does snigger at you one day, and you find that you have been wrongly “named and shamed” on a web site such as Do Not Date Him? Now your name is out there for anyone you know to Google – and regardless of whether or not the allegations are true; you are associated with something immoral, and you have no control over it because the information was placed there by a third party. In addition, that third party may go ahead and post your name, photographs and information about you on any number of web sites – which you may or may not find out about.

The power of the Internet is immense – especially when considering the impact that one individual can have with a few keyboard strokes.