Online Identity in the News Week of 3/16/09

Economic Crunch Means a Boom in Roommates Due to the horrible economy people are looking for ways to save and help each other out, and for many that means moving in with roommates. Whether couples have spare rooms to rent out to earn some extra money or for working singles to share apartments together, there has been a rise in shared living arrangements. While many are graciously opening their doors to needy people it could also be a dangerous situation for both parties. Experts are suggestion to treat moving in with roommates as a business transaction by having a third party do a background check and credit screening.

Internet Safety Gains for Kids in New Jersey New Jersey lawmakers passed 10 bills to help protect children from internet predators. One would reduce the online anonymity of Megans Law registrants, another would criminalize any sexually explicit online communication and another would mandate that any technician or computer repairmen would report any evidence of child pornography found on the computer. The bills will now advance to the state senate.

Make Background Checks Reliable and Accessible The Child Protection Improvements Act of 2009 is aiming to have a mandatory background checking system put in place for all youth volunteer organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  In the past Child Safety Act , in 6.1 percent cases over 2000 people were found to have a criminal record, many with charges of sexual abuse.  This act wants to create universal access to nationwide background checking searches where they can obtain both a state and FBI search.

Contractor Screening and Employment Background Check Searches Only 90% of American companies run contractor screening and criminal checks on these partners. Contractors cause the greatest risk for these companies because they barely ever see them. Take for instance a truck driver who came on the highway too fast and without signaling. She caused a major accident and the person sued and won close to $800,000 in damages because the owner of the trucking company hired an inexperienced/negligent driver.

Famous on Facebook Jennifer Lowther, a social media director, is quoted “I’m just starting to see my online life permeate my offline.” What she is talking about is all the photos, messages, updates she does on all of her social networks like facebook, twitter, flickr has made her somewhat of a celebrity around town. Everyone these days has a digital camera and you never know whose photos you will end up in, where they will be posted, and whose profile you are now associated with.  She says that people she doesn’t even know are following her on Twitter and expecting that she knows them.  The social media allows you to be a celebrity in your own little world.

What Happens to Your Virtual Life After Death? There are websites that are designed to keep all your affairs in order in case the unthinkable happens.  Your online persona will live forever unless someone else comes along and manually erases is it for you. Think of it as an online will, a database secure with contacts, accounts and passwords that will shut off if not accessed by a certain time.

How To Spot a Fake Online Profile Specialists say that up to 30% of all social networking members profiles are misleading.  The reason is that the internet allows people the possibility of using typing to express their feelings.  It is easier to say that you are laughing than to actually laugh.  Fake profiles are causing a problem especially in the online dating communities because you cannot know if the person you are talking with is actually  who they say they are.

Create an Online Presence, But With Care “Don’t ignore your online presence, you are who google says you are.” If you are searching for a job, like so many people are these days, you need to do some extra research into your online persona. Most human resource administrators and recruiters are checking you out online before they even call you to come in for an interview. You need to be extra smart about what you post online and really look into the privacy settings on your social networking sites.  It is good to have an online persona but one needs to be professional, make sure you use different emails and pictures for your professional profile.

I Stole My Friends Identity It’s not just financial identity theft that is out there. The internet allows people to be anyone they want to be and sometimes that person is you. Even if you have never signed up for a social network or blog or any other online service, it doesn’t mean your online identity is clear. Someone who knows you can easily set up an online profile using your information to cause a world of trouble and the sad thing is you may never know about it until it is too late.

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Online Identity in the News Week of 3/9/09

Internet Safety Act Would Make Us Less Safe Calling for a new law that would require all internet access providers to keep identity records of their users for up to 2 years. So all libraries, restaurants, and cafes with WiFi would have to maintain records of who and when the internet was accessed. The laws intention is to track and prosecute criminals who use the internet to traffic child pornography.If this data retention requirement becomes law, other such requirements will almost surely follow, and extend to even more sensitive information, including the content of communications

Protect Yourself/Be Careful of Online Offers Interesting list of recent internet scams and how they go about getting your money and good tips on how to not be a victim.  Whether it be a “work from home” scam or “coaching” service it is informative to learn how these people are getting away with internet crime.

The Criminal At your Door
This is a cautionary article about people who you hire to come into your home. A lot of subcontractors who work for larger construction companies or carpet cleaning services are not required to have a background check done. So a lot of ex-criminals/sexual predators are getting hired as subcontractors and being graciously let into your home. Home Depot is now requiring mandatory background checks for all of their sub contractors and employees. Make sure to check who you are hiring to come do work in your home.

Security is Key to Online Gambling Patrons A Veri-sign survey reveals that trusting a site is the most important factor in interacting with an internet location. The best security for consumers is education and using the latest tools and technologies that are out there to help counter fraud.

Who’s Watching You on the Web…Everyone This is an international article about how the European Parliament is trying to take measures to protect internet users and give them the right to permanently delete personal data from the internet.  So much of our information is online and internet companies and governments clearly have a lot more power and knowledge than individual users who are the ones most at risk for identity theft.

People Search Engines: They Know Your Dark Secrets We share so much about ourselves online and I am not just talking about bank accounts, blogs, or photos. Everytime you search for something, add something to your Amazon wishlist, or add a new station to Pandora, it is being carefully stored where anyone with the right tools can dig all this information up on you. Anyone can pay to have access to this information to find out more about you and what your interests are. While you may think that each individual bit of information may seem insignificant, the cumulative effect of seeing it assembled in a neatly packaged portfolio can be a little jarring.

The Unblinking Eye of the Boss Sees More Than You Realize Employers are taking a deeper look into how their employees are spending their time at work.  Some employers are demanding a deep screening background check into more areas than just criminal and past work experience, such as social networking and gaming sites. There is also new technology that is capable of monitoring ones online behavior at work and calculating how many minutes a day an employee is spending on non work related issues. It has been calculated that 37 million people spend 50 minutes at work a week managing their fantasy football teams. Factor that number along with Myspace, Facebook, Ebay and YouTube and you can see why an employer would be concerned about slacking at work.

How Safe Are Your Kids? A lot of school districts are seeing a rise in substitute teacher applications due to the tight job market and so many people being unemployed. Substitute teaching offers a good daily pay and the ability to work close to home, unfortunately it also deals with being around minors, an issue for many pedophiles and sex offenders. Certain districts are requiring mandatory background checks for all substitute teachers, as well as their regular staff. It is important to be on top of your school district to ensure that they are also taking the appropriate measures to ensure the safety of your children.

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Navigation Update

We’ve made an update that makes it easier to get directly to your state background checking resources. The links below would get you direct to any state background check page on our site. Please feel free to visit the page and then bookmark your state:

Background Check Resources By State:

AL | AK | AZ | AR | CA | CO | CT | DE | DC | FL | GA | HI | ID | IL | IN | IA | KS | KY | LA | ME | MD | MA | MI | MN | MS | MO | MT | NE | NV | NH | NJ | NM | NY | NC | ND | OH | OK | OR | PA | RI | SC | SD | TN | TX | UT | VT | VA | WA | WV

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Online Identity in the News Week of 3/2/09

Each week we post stories from around the web and media that detail how identity affects society and its importance. As always, feel free to post links you have found in the comments. Here is the roundup for the week of 3/01/2009:

Background Checks Are The Final Step Before Hiring For Many Companies

Companies are being much more proactive about doing background checks on potential employees due to the large number of job seekers “enhancing” information on their resumes.  A lot of the times people will lie about dates of employment, college education, and job titles thinking that the employer won’t be able to catch it. However, background checking companies are able to pick up on all the details of the job seekers education and employment history. Best thing to do is be honest about who you are.

Offbeat Name? Then Facebook’s No Friend

Really interesting article about how people with “different” last names are being rejected from Facebook thus making them create fake names (identities) which completely contradicts the whole point of Facebook.  For instance Facebook does not recognize Caitlin Batman, Keith Kisser, or Bess Pancake as real people and therefore are denying them access, making them have to appeal and send lengthy emails with documents such as drivers licenses and passports. Half of the time the people give up and create fake last names based on family surnames and such, making it more difficult to connect with friends and basically forcing them into identity fraud.

Beware of Job Search Scams

Again another cautionary article about identity theft based on people posting their resume online. Having too much personal information on your resume makes the job seeker a major target for identity theft. Even having too much of a previous employers information can be detrimental to your online identity. Make sure you do your homework before responding back to an interested employer with any personal information.

Big Mother Is Watching

What happened to maternal instinct? With today’s schools online data systems, parents are able to instantly know what their children are up to, if they have turned in their homework, failed a test, or ordered 3 cookies for lunch instead of a sandwich and fruit. From the comforts of their Wi-Fi’d homes or offices mothers and fathers with a quick punch of a password can be connected to the schools online grading databases as well as their cafeteria accounts to monitor every move of their son or daughter. But is all this invasion of privacy necessary? Isn’t it worth it for the child to squirm for a few days  over a bad grade that they are afraid to bring home to mom and dad? And is it safe to have all of your childs information whether it be grades or eating habits online?

Facebook Users Warned About Dangers Of Being App Happy

A warning to be careful as to which applications you install on your facebook account because many are being targeted by cyber criminals. In the past week, several new variants of the Koobface worm, which targets Facebook users, and a number of “rogue applications” have been reported on the site, the internet security firm Trend Micro reported.  Make sure you do your research before installing an application and add security features to your account to prevent identity theft.

Identity Theft Rises, Gen Y Most At Risk

No surprise that Gen Y is most at risk for identity theft because they have a much more lackadaisical approach to the internet. While they are more tech-savy than Gen X they seem to also have a more care free attitutde about the internet and the information they are sharing. Older generations are much more concerned about identity theft and the dangers of the internet. The social networks are where the Gen Y’s are really letting their guard down and sharing a lot of information without realizing the consequences that may have in the future.

How To Protect Yourself While Job Hunting Online

While these job search sites take measures to validate the identities of job seekers, they don’t seem to do the same for employers. The result is that nearly all of these job sites allow someone to identify him or herself as an employer without verification.

Study: Fraud Could Drive Consumers To Non-Bank Online Payments

Financial fraud may drive people away from online banking and towards more secure electronic payment services such as pay pal. Fraud involving credit and debit cards was the method most actively used by crooks to steal money, claiming 36% more victims in 2008 than other types of fraud.

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Online Identity in the News Week of 2/23/09

Each week we post stories from around the web and media that detail how identity affects society and its importance. As always, feel free to post links you have found in the comments. Here is the roundup for the week of 2/23/2009:

Consumers Are Unwilling to Sacrifice Convenience for Security, Despite Widespread Online Fraud

Two-thirds of U.S. consumers use the same password for all websites requiring authentication and they are not using software or hardware to manange their passwords. While most Americans are concerned about online identity fraud many are not willing to sacrifice the convenience of only having to memorize one easy password. There needs to be stronger requirements for people to create passwords on these websites and the consumer needs to realize the effect of having only one password and rethink how they go about signing up for things on line.

Identity Theft Costs a Record $56.6 Billion

Identity theft, the biggest source of U.S. consumer fraud, costs a record $56.6 billion in cash, goods, and services. Two thirds of victims have no out-of-pocket expense (because banks and credit card companies seldom ask victims to cover any charges), for about 3 million victims, the average cost of repairing their credit was nearly $1,200 and for all victims the average time to set the record straight was 40 hours. Luckily there has been a decline in identity theft since 2004 which may be due to more people doing online bill pay. Not having a paper trail of statements and receipts has helped lower the numbers of fraud cases.

Love Dilemmas: Is My Online Date a Scammer?

As if dating online isn’t hard enough, ladies beware. You may feel like you are being romanced by an attractive well to do gentleman who recites you poetry and tells you how much he enjoys your conversations, but watch out if he ever claims to be stuck in a “travel emergency” and needs you to wire him a few thousand dollars. Remember anyone can pretend to be anyone online, you wouldn’t give $2,000 to a random person on the street so don’t give out your money to your online companion.

One Password to Rule Them All

A similar take on how American consumers are using the same password (the dogs name for instance) for all of their online activity thinking that their financial institutions will protect them. However, you never get all of your money back if your checking account gets defrauded. There needs to be stronger password protection on these sites and the users need to think about purchasing software that will protect their assets.

The Job Hunt

With the economy the way that it is, job seekers are having a difficult time making themselves stand out from the competition.  This article tells the tale of Betty who had a great resume and a successful interview but was passed up on the job due to something she didn’t even know existed.  There was another Betty with the same name and a similar birthday and this Betty had a nice long criminal history.  Betty found this out using a new Facebook application called True Scoop and after running a check on herself she knew that this employer had mistaken her for criminal Betty. Good example of why job seekers should check their own background.

Face(lift)Book

Interesting article about how art imitates life. There is a play being put on in Chelsea, MA called the Dark Horse which tells the tale of two people who meet in an online dating chatroom 14- year-old Nick, a web surfing teen who comes across an online personals ad from 16 year-old Adam. Nick responds to the ad as “Rachel,” and the two begin an online rapport and romance; but the emotional stakes are raised when they meet in real life, and Adam discovers the girl of his dreams is really a boy. This play is based on a real life story about two people in England.  One of the actors is quoted saying, “Take a flip through Facebook, mosey around MySpace. or fix your target on Manhunt, and a curious reality becomes clearnever before has it been so easy to construct our own persona”

New, Misguided Online Child-Safety Laws Will Hurt Business

In the most recent effort to thwart child predators online, both the US. House and Senate are considering bills that would require any Internet access provider, possibly including public Wi-Fi hotspots, to retain Internet user data for up to two years.  But, what about the increasing numbers of businesses that offer free Internet to customers and even the general public? And how do you maintain such records if you go over to someones house and they give you a password for your access point? Some people believe this is a major privacy violation and a burdern even if it does keep some criminals at bay.

With More Employers Using MySpace and Facebook for Background Checks, Legal Experts Advise Caution

More business owners are turning to internet searches to find out more about their current and potential employees, and finding more personal information than they bargained for just by Googling their names. The three points state that 1. Yes it is legal to search social networking sites as part of a background check, 2. Yes you can be terminated, or not hired based on information found on the internet and 3. Yes employers should use reliable background checking companies to do checks on all potential candidates because half of the information on the internet is just not true.

Students Wary Of Identity Theft

A new identity theft scam has been causing havoc amongst many college students in campuses all over the country in regards to selling used books online. The scam occurs when, as a form of payment, students receive a check that is written out for more than the amount requested. The scam artist then requests that the seller cashes the check and sends the extra funds back to the purchaser. Because this is actually a fraudulent act, the check bounces and it becomes the responsibility of the seller. These students need to be more cautious about how they go about making quick money. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

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Online Identity in the News- Week of 2/16

Each week we post stories from around the web and media that detail how identity affects society and its importance. As always, feel free to post links you have found in the comments. Here is the roundup for the week of 2/16/2009:

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Calms Privacy Fears Over TOS Change

Anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content,” flamed The Consumerist in its interpretation. After many protested against the new terms of service, facebook decided to postpone the change leaving its members to possibly rethink what information they will keep posted online.

Protect Yourself From Growing Identity Crimes

The FTC says ID theft is the fastest growing crime in the nation, affecting 9 million Americans each year.  It is also the top consumer complaint five years in a row. IMPD investigators say financial fraud has been going up about 200% as they try to keep up with criminals using fast evolving technology.

Chris Brown’s Mistaken Identity on Facebook

Chris Brown has made headlines all week regarding is alledged attack on Rhianna. He is also a perfect example of how anyone can be an imposter online to create a fake profile on a social networking site. There are a few new Chris Brown profiles on Facebook claiming to be the artist, many of which are posting comments about the incident with Rhianna and making it seem that she is not so innocent. With legal issues and a reputation at stake you can see how damaging it could be when someone creates a fake profile claiming to be someone else.

Mistakes In Background Checks Could Cost You the Job

It happens all the time. An employer goes through a private company to get a background check on employees. Only what if that background check is wrong and claims you’re a felon, when you’re not? Well it happens, and more than you’d think. It is important that you as the job seeker and as a person to know what information is out there on you so there are no surprises. Don’t wait until its too late, make sure you check yourself out so you can clear up any discrepancies. It is important for you and your family members to get a background check to make sure that your information is correct.

Fact Sheet, The Department of Justice’s Effort To Combat Identity Theft

Identity theft is a crime that victimizes people and businesses in every community from major cities to small towns, and robs victims of their individual freedoms. The Department of Justice is deeply committed to combating all forms of identity theft, through its use of investigative and prosecutorial resources to bring identity thieves to justice, and its support of outreach and prevention efforts to protect the public from identity theft.

Online Dating: Blocking the Bad Guys

The list of people that clients don’t want to meet online including sexual predators, pedophiles, scammers, spammers and plain old liars is a long one. Whether you take it into your own hands by running background checks on potential dates or it becomes a required application on the site itself, it is important to know that their are sketchy people online and you need to protect yourslef from being taken advantage of.

Woman “Romanced” Out of 300K in Internet Dating Hoax

If you are chatting with a man online and he texts/emails you that he needs money for travel or any other emergency BEWARE.  Online relationships are very tricky. You may think you are “in love” with this person, but how do you know for sure that they really are who they say they are. Common sense and instinct should have prevented these  women from losing all their money in an internet dating scam, but a background check would have proven it for sure.

Be Prepared: Tips For Preventing Identity Theft This Tax Season

Whether filing taxes online or through the mail, you still send and receive a large amount of confidential information on paper, such as W-2 forms, credit card statements and old pay stubs, all of which can leave you vulnerable to the crime.

Protect Yourself From ID Theft

Identity theft is a serious problem, and in today’s floundering economy, it’s bound to grow worse in the coming days. You need to protect your credit and your online profiles and make sure that you do not give out your personal information to the wrong source.

Online Dating: Your Profile’s Longs, Scary Shelf Life

Online dating services have privacy policies that offer some assurances about how that data will be used and not used, but they don’t necessarily delete your data after you’ve canceled your subscription and moved on. Similar to the changes in the TOS of Facebook, your online profile may come back to haunt you years down the line.  Say you met someone online, dated, married, then a few years later are getting divorced, any information that you have online from the begining of the relationship til present could come back to haunt you, especially if their was any misrepresentation.

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Best Interview Tip Ever: Run a Background Check Before the Interview

This is actually a great tip, but we have moved the post to a new location. Visit Background Check Your Employer to learn more.

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Online Identity in the News- Week of 2/9

Each week we post stories from around the web and media that detail how identity effects society and its importance. As always, feel free to post links you have found in the comments. Here is the roundup for the week of 2/9/2009:

Fake Social Network Profiles: a New Form of Identity Theft in 2009

Interesting post about how the newest identity theft threat focuses around fake online profiles. Your friends fun little joke could turn into more of serious issue when a fake profile is created using your photos and personal information.  They may think its a fun way to “set you up” with people you would never talk to and have your embarrassing pictures posted for all to see, however what happens when one of these strangers approaches you and you have no idea who they are.

New Berlin teen accused of using Facebook for Sexual Blackmail

Another horrible story about how a lack of identity on Facebook caused major trouble amongst teens. This is obviously one of the main concerns parents have with these social websites. Sexual predators and other criminals can create fake profiles and pose as teenagers and be able to talk with your children.

Thousands of MySpace Sex Offender Refugees Found on Facebook

MySpace employs technology to identify potential sex offenders on their site.  So what do they do — move over to Facebook.  When will enough be enough? There needs to be a better system in place to monitor who is signing up for these social websites. It was easy enough for 90,000 sexual predators to establish profiles, who else is on there?

Identity Theft: It’s Out of Your Hands

According to Gartner, 15 million identities per year are stolen, a new victim once every 2 seconds. Given 15 million a year, in ten years every U.S. citizen who uses the Net will have had his or her identity stolen. Everytime you make a purchase online, give out any personal information, or have your information posted onine you run the rish of identity theft.  Keep your personal information offline.

Online Resumes are easy target for Identity Thieves

Having your resume posted on the internet could easily attract online thieves pretending to be an employer to offer you a job and then ask for personal information such as drivers license and bank account information. Think about how much personal information is on your resume, name, address, phone number, previous places of work, colleges. Plenty enough information for someone to steal your identity.

Predators Panic Increases Risk

Sexual predators being able to create profiles on MySpace and Facebook and talk to children. How can so many registered sex offenders and criminals be able to sign up and create fake profiles for these social websites?  Parents beware of who your children are communicating with online.

Locking Away Secrets Crucial to Online Trading

No matter how sophisticated the online trading companies make their software, responsibility for keeping personal data away from would-be identity thieves ultimately rests with the consumer.  Older adults are more skeptical about investing online because of their unfamiliarity with the internet and are more subject to giving out personal information to would be identity thieves unknowingly.

Log Out: The Social Networking Backlash

Anyone can create a fake profile of someone they know and have full on relationships posing as this other person affecting their personal relationships, credit history, and safety. I easily have enough information and pictures of a friend that if I wanted to, could create an online profile of them and single handedly ruin their reputation.  Obviously I am a normal law abiding citizen who cherishes their friendships, however think about someone you know and how easy it would be to have this done to you. Think about jobs that could be lost, friendships over, and even credit history could be damaged if someone else was controlling your online profiles.

Beware of online job scams

Summit County residents who are searching online for employment are being targeted by internet con artists who are out to get their money. Ok, so your resume is posted on an online job site, you get a call the next day from Joe and Joe Inc, offering you a great job, however they need more information before they bring you in, a copy of your drivers license maybe? a bank account number? Make sure you know exactly who is contacting you and never ever give out personal information until you know for sure.

Children Being Victimized By Identity Thieves

Parents are unknowingly giving out too much of their children’s information when signing them up for programs and are new targets for identity thefts because of their clean credit records.  Think about how many things you sign your children up for, swimming lessons, soccer team, art class. Lots of paperwork is done with your childs information on it. It could be very easy for a identity thief to steal your childs completley clean background.

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The Issue of Online Identity, Anonymity and the Movement Toward a Safer Social Web

The Internet Safety Technical Task Force led by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University recently released a 278 page final report examining the extent of the threats children face on social networks. The report was the culmination of a year of meetings between dozens of academics, experts in childhood safety and executives of 30 companies, including Yahoo, AOL, MySpace and Facebook. BeenVerified presented our technology to the task force during an open meeting that took place on September 23 and 24 of last year.

BeenVerified was started several years ago after my partner and I were “mislead” about the credentials of freelances we hired online. We knew that in order to fully realize the potential of the social web, there must be a way to “verify” objective information (identity, age, degree, experience), people present about themselves online. What does this have to do with keeping children safe online? Everything!

As the report accurately conveys and was stressed in a recent article in the New York  Times, the real problem children face online is increased exposure to “cyber-bullying.” We all know bullying is a fact of life.  However, it does not take a child psychologist to understand that bullying increases when children can hide their true identities behind the computer. Simply put, there is always one person in school willing to bully someone in person.  However, there are many students who would never do that face- to- face, but would do it anonymously online.  This exasperates the problem of bullying.

Cyber-bullying is a symptom of the real culprit- online identity. Our quest to solve the problem of verifying online freelancers lead us to a greater understanding of the real issue at hand. If we want to eliminate symptoms, we must attack the disease. At the same time, we can help the web become a better place in all areas. Tackling the issue of online identity will tackle problems like:

• Is that person giving medical advice on his blog really a doctor?
• Is that person I am meeting off Craigslist to buy a table actually a rapist?
• Is that freelance designer really a pro at Photoshop?
• Is that 12 year old chatting with my 12 year old actually a 12 year old?

Here is a blueprint on how to being tackling the main culprit – Identity

1. Opt-In

We must make identity verification optional. The Internet should remain open and free. Otherwise, underground communities will appear immediately. Think about happened when the government banned online gambling. People set up shop in Costa Rica. The same will happen here, unless all verification is “opt-in.”

2. User Centric/Selective Disclosure

It is imperative that the verification process benefits the individual. Getting verified should not be a chore, but instead something that adds value to the user. It should be a process about “me.” Furthermore, if a doctor is blogging about her area of expertise, lets say children’s preventive health, then the system should work where as audiences can be shown the credentials associated with what is important: degree verification and work experience. However, it is not necessary to convey age, or name, or even the hospital where the doctor works. This is what we mean by selective disclosure.

3. Portability

Once a person is verified, they should be able to show off their verification anywhere they go online. For example, on a dating site, they should be able to show they are not a criminal, they are actually 38, and perhaps verify the career they claim. However, again, no need to show that you do in fact have a certificate in SCUBA diving, unless you want to. That same user should be able to show a different set of verifications on LinkedIn, Facebook, E-Bay or anywhere else they choose.

4. Best of Breed Data Sources

The identity verification platform should not be “married” to one data source. Technology and public information availability changes all the time and the system should easily adapt to these changes. The source and date of verification should be noted, but any source should have the chance to be included.

We see the space shaping up very similar to the credit card industry, with a hint of pay pal and a splash of Verisign. There should be a handful of trusted companies competing to offer the best services and become recognizable “trust signals,” but for humans. The branded trust signal should go wherever the user wants to take it and when the audience clicks on the trust mark- a small window opens up on the page showing the verified information, the data source and the date of verification.

In order for this to happen, we need:

1. Access to Existing Social Networks

Sites like Match.com and LinkedIn need to open up their communities to allow third-party human trust signals to work on the site. Right now, these sites do not allow for third-party trust human trust signals.

2. Government needs to make public information accessible

Right now, the state of New York charges $55 for a criminal report. This is extremely cost prohibitive. Also, we are not talking about privacy issues here. Remember, it is up to the individual to decide what information about themselves they would like verified, (Opt-In), who to share what information (selective disclosure) and where to share it (portability).

3.  Education and Collaboration

There needs to be a massive effort to educate individuals and audiences on the idea of online identity verification. We need the government to help with PSA’s, the media to help by raising and exploring the issue, and NGO’s to get involved as well.

In conclusion, you can not pull the carriage before the horse. In order to tackle the symptoms of online identity, we must start to make headway against the culprit.

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2008 Looking More Like 1929 Outside NYC Job Fair. Time To Invest In Yourself!

Recently, I was walking down 6th Avenue in Chelsea and stumbled upon a tremendous line of people snaking around several blocks. I figured it was the line to try out for the next edition of American Idol, but I was wrong. It was the line to get into where I was heading, CareerBuilder.com’s New York Career Fair! Wow. Check out the photo below. The line was not full of recent college grads looking to land their first sales job. It was people of all ages, shapes and sizes. This economy clearly spares no one.

We know it is a competitive environment for today’s job-seekers. But it was competitive just to get into the career fair. Picture yourself in that line. A lot of qualified people out there. The person standing in front of you, they have an MBA. The person behind you, great job experience. The guy behind that guy–great cover letter.

So. Mr. or Ms. Job-Seeker, how can you make yourself stand out in a saturated market? That is the 7 billion dollar question. You need to figure out a way to climb to the top of the highest mountain and scream to the world that unlike most people, YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES.

If this current economic crisis has taught us anything, it is that there can be no better investment than investing in yourself. Let me say that again, there is no better investment than investing in yourself. Things like extra education, night classes, investing in things to make you a better candidate — should not be thought of as expenses. Instead, they are investments in yourself, investments that pay way higher returns than some stock or bond you know nothing about.

Investing in things we don’t understand is what created this mess in the first place. And you know nothing in the world better than yourself. Do you think I can figure out another way to use “yourself” or “investing in yourself” a few more times in this paragraph.?

Have any ideas on how to stand out? Don’t hesitate to share it with us. We’d love to here how you are weathering the economic storm and what you are doing to distinguish yourself from the guy next to you. In fact, next time your in NYC, Shake Shack is on us.*

Disclaimer- Shake Shack closes for the season soon.

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