Unlike in the print world, what's posted on the internet today does not become tomorrow's fish paper. Anything written about an individual can hang around for years, meaning that misinformation, criticism, slander or humiliating pictures from, for example, someone's debs ball can be viewed by anyone with internet access.
Companies are increasingly using search engines when doing background searches on potential employees, and the growth in social networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo means that today's outspoken teenager might be tomorrow's embarrassed adult.
It's easy to imagine a political candidate, for instance, wishing he could erase an old post in which he argued for the decriminalisation of drugs.
A new American company, Reputation Defender, may herald the inevitable response to the proliferation of information - its swift removal.
"Our trained and expert online reputation-advocates use of an array of proprietary techniques developed in-house to correct and/or completely remove the selected unwanted content from the web," it claims. "This is an arduous and labour-intensive task, but we take the job seriously so you can sleep better at night."
Beginning at just under €10, it offers two packages. MyReputation will "dig up every possible piece of information about you" and attempt to "destroy" the stuff you don't like. Meanwhile, MyChild offers to find all information "by and about your child" so that you parents can decide which of it is potentially damaging.
In the US, employers are not the only ones using search engines - many universities are also now using them to assess the personality of applicants.
Lastly, the service will soon offer MyPrivacy, in which personal information - address, phone numbers, "divorce records" - is targeted. With each package, a monthly report on the client's on-line profile is provided.
But there are problems. Reputation Defender has not fully revealed its methods, and admits that it cannot promise 100 per cent success. "[ Reputation Defender] does not guarantee or warrant that it will be successful in effecting removal or alteration," it says. Requests to have newspaper articles and court reports removed are difficult to follow through. It is limited by legal constraints and a self-professed unwillingness to tackle free speech. And ultimately, there is always the problem of the belligerent blogger, refusing to budge unless told to by a judge.
