[privacy] ReputationDefender ...

[Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah]

On another list, someone asked a question about a mailing received promoting the 
services of a particularly vendor.  I must admit that, at first, I paid it scant 
attention.  However, something in the posting caught my attention:

> We at ReputationDefender wanted to thank you for your important and
> useful website regarding Internet safety. 

Uh huh.  They are searching and harvesting, targetting a specific market ...

> Given your focus on Internet
> safety, we thought you or your readers might be interested in learning
> about our MyChild services:
> http://reputationdefender.com/mychild.php

Haven't looked into this part yet, but:

> As our website states, ReputationDefender is dedicated to helping
> parents ensure that the Internet is a medium where their children can
> pursue their passions, apply to school, stay connected with friends and
> family, apply for jobs, etc.,

Obviously targetting the specific person, because what follows is quite different:

> while knowing that their reputations,
> safety, and privacy are being protected 24 hours a day.  We accomplish
> this goal by searching the Internet for any and all information about
> our clients,

I can't recall how long ago it was, but there was a flurry of these things for a while. 
 They all purported to search out data and particularly queries about you.  (In fact, 
that was part of their marketing spam: they'd send you a message saying that 
someone was asking about you.  Of course, you couldn't see who was asking about 
you, or what they wanted to know, or who was reporting on you, or what they 
were saying, until you became a paying client ...)

> presenting our clients with comprehensive reports of that
> information,

Like you couldn't search this out yourself.  What's it called: vanity searching?  
Something like that.

> and then destroying specific content, at the request of our
> clients, using proprietary techniques.

Now *this* part is new.  Suppose I put up a notice on my Website that somebody 
is an extremely bad person, and we should all march on his/her house with 
pitchforks, and etc, etc.  This person, buying into RepDef, sics them on me, and 
they ... what?  DDoS my ISP?  Poison my ISPs DNS?  Break into my computer 
and deface my site?

Now, given that I'm an extraordinarily nasty person, this may be justified.  
However, in the normal course of events, it could get you into a lot of legal 
trouble.

I'd be *very* careful about shaking hands with these guys ...

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade at vcn.bc.ca     slade at victoria.tc.ca     rslade at computercrime.org
Self-respect: The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is
suspicious.                                           - H.L. Mencken
Dictionary of Information Security  www.syngress.com/catalog/?pid=4150
http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm