Steven Wyer - Violated Online: How Online Slander Can Destroy Your Life & What You Must Do to Protect Yourself

What People are Saying About Violated Online

Steven Wyer nails it. The book is not just a list of dangers, its a plan of action. If you dont control your online image, someone else will.

Trevor Matich, ESPN Football Analyst

A practical how-to-guide for everyone concerned about protecting his or her online reputation or company brand. A must read because credibility matters in life and in business.

Kathleen Calligan, CEO, Better Business Bureau Middle Tennessee

Every business involved in the capital markets is exposed by uncontrollable online information. Online reputation management is vital for private and public companies, officers, directors and senior management. It is about time a book like this was written.

J. Ramson, Pro-Active Capital Resources Group

he that filches from me my good name robs me and makes me poor indeed. Shakespeare never heard of the Internet, but Steven Wyers book warns us that todays technology makes us more vulnerable to the theft of reputation than when the Bard put the words into the mouth of the villainous Iago. And, Wyer informs us that we have ways and weapons to protect against the robbery that can make us poor indeed.

John Seigenthaler, Founder, First Amendment Center, Vanderbilt University & Founding Editorial Director of USA Today

There are few things more hurtful and frustrating in life as to become a victim of anonymous slander posted on the Internet for the whole world to see. I know this from first-hand experience and, even as a public figure, have found it very difficult to fight back against some of the most over-the-top defamatory outrages imaginable. Violated Online is a great and much-needed guide for anyone and everyone from the celebrity to the most private person because, like it or not, we are all potential victims in the 21st century.

Joseph Farah, Editor and CEO, WND.com and WND Books

violated
ONLINE

IF YOU THINK YOU ARE SAFETHINK AGAIN.

How Online Slander Can Destroy Your Life and What You Must Do to Protect Yourself

Steven Wyer
with Jeremy Dunlap

Violated Online 2011 Reputation Advocate Inc.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee
by Dunham Books, 63 Music Square East, Nashville, TN 37203.

The nature of our work requires both trust and discretion. For this reason, all of the names and geographic locations that are mentioned in this book have been changed. The material facts for each story are absolutely true. You cannot easily make this stuff up.

Disclaimer: This book is not intended as a substitute for legal or Search Engine Reputation Management advice. The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you.

ISBN 978-0-9837456-0-0

Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to my
Uncle Keith (Poobah) Gibson,
the wisest man I know.
He taught me to remember that
If its not one thing,
its another.

I must confess that Ive never trusted the Web.
Ive always seen it as a cowards tool.
Where does it live? How do you hold it personally responsible?
Can you put a distributed network of fiber-optic cable on notice?
And is it male or female?
In other words, can I challenge it to a fight?

Stephen Colbert

I grew up believing the playing field of life was pretty fair; maybe you did, too. If two people had a disagreement, it could be worked out. If a person was slandered, there was recourse through the courts where justice would be served up fairly. But the playing field of the past has been paved over. It is now an information super highwaya highway that covers the globe. All of it. Its difficult to process the speed with which things have changed. The rules for playing are different now, and we dont know what to do about it.

I talk to people all the time that say things like, I dont do the Internet or, social media is for kids. I used to think these people were just too lazy to learn something new but dont believe that anymore. Ive come to realize that mostly they are just plain scared. They know enough to understand that there is danger out there, but they are not sure exactly what is dangerous or what to do about the danger. I hope this book helps.

Recently, a friend made a comment on my Facebook page. Id posted a link to an article that announced the White House had added a new position to deal with online media. The post, within its communications department, is titled Director of Progressive Media & Online Response. (Our tax dollars at work).

And you dont think every other sitting President had the same kind of media management? my friend asked. My answer was simple. No.

While politicians have always had influence over the media, the tables have turned and people now have a way to express themselves through digital media that cannot be easily stifled. The people have a voice and it can be used for good. This ability has never been available in the history of our planet.

But for every good thing, there is a shadow side. While the White House has ample resources in the form of our tax dollars to deploy in defense of the sitting president, the majority of citizens do not. And in fact, most of those that do have the resources dont know how to use them to protect themselves.

A cardiologist is criminally charged with sexual misconduct. He is arrested, booked and formally charged. The medical partnership he practices with asks for his resignation. The media eat him up, his family is humiliated and his thirty-year career is destroyed. The doctor is found completely innocent by a jury, and it is disclosed that the person who filed the suit had perpetrated the same smear tactic ten years prior on another doctor. The court expunges his record and no evidence of the nightmare existsexcept online. The news stories remain; the blogs that take cheap shots still show up when his name is searched. Everything is there, and it will be for twenty years. The doctor finally decides to change vocations.

People often ask how I found my way into Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM), and it is a fair question. The direct answer is that I was involved in a lawsuit. While I used to live by the belief that we are innocent until proven guilty, I learned the hard way it doesnt work like that anymore. The online accusations damaged my business, hurt my family and deeply affected my income. And if it can happen to me, it can happen to you.

Since then, I have personally talked to hundreds of people with stories woven from the shadow side of the Internet. Their narratives would sound like fiction, were it not for the fact that I have helped many of them reclaim their lives and their dignity. The shadows exist for professionals, college students, small businesses and public companies. We are not talking about a small group of people on the fringe; we are talking about literally millions of peoplepeople just like you and me.