How do you get someone to remove your real/full name from their blog?
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My real name is used on the blog of sabrinasee.com, which is hosted here. I am currently seeking a new career, and have enlisted professional help in doing so. In recent years, many prominent employers will search the internet to learn more about prospective employees. It has been brought to my attention that SabrinaSee, four years ago, took an anecdotal conversation that took place via instant messaging (where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy), transposed/published it to her blog, and replaced my IM name, with my real name.
While I enjoyed being mentioned on her blog, as the conversation was mean to be humorous and all in fun, it is now problematic for me in my career search. I have written to her in comments on her blog, and via instant messaging, requesting that my name be edited to something like, “James Douchebag”, but I have not received any response from her. I don’t know of any other way to contact her. I don’t know if she is the kind of person who enjoys making trouble, or is satisfied by the idea of her blog having a negative and unjust impact on someone’s life, or if she simply has not received my request.
Whatever the case may be, it is very important to me that this blog entry be edited or removed. What can I do, more than I have already done, to get rid of this unsightly and potentially costly blemish?
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Your options are: to ask her nicely, to seek legal help (probably both expensive and fruitless) and to attempt to out-google her. Employers really often don’t even bother phoning references; the idea that they’re drilling down through Google to page ten to find incriminating things about you is not really plausible.
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I have actually tried to google a prospective employee (at the suggestion of out HR department). I ended up with pages for dozens of different people, without a way of knowing which was the right one. Unless you have a very unusual name or also give your address or picture then it is unlikely to be able to link that to you. Do a google search for your own name and see what comes up.
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Contact support and tell them your real name is being used on a WordPress.com blog and how the blog is still being updated which means the person didn’t just die or fall off the face of the earth. I just checked the blog and it’s still being updated as of a couple of weeks ago. One blog was yanked the other day about a Texas woman and ebay fraud and all her personal information was on it.
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Please report all such cases of abuse. We take this sort of thing seriously, and will investigate the issue for you. http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/
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Is telling a true story using real names against the terms of service? That would be news to me.
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That would mean you would have to refer to Britney Spears by some other descriptive, but obscure, term.
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Publishing someone’s real name or other personal information is not in general against the terms of service (nor is it illegal).
Threats and defamation are against the terms of service. If someone makes a threat or otherwise breaks the law we will deal with it. If there is no threat we will not.
In short: if a crime has been committed, call the police. If damage has been done, call a lawyer. That’s what they are for. Tech support is neither.
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I like Miss Manners’ attitude towards this kind of thing: she says the solution to a bad reputation you earned is you earning a better one for your actions NOW. Which ties in nicely with the idea of out-googling someone.
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