Recently, leaked documents obtained by Forbidden Stories revealed the inner world of Eliminalia, a Spanish reputation management company. Forbidden Stories and partners investigated the company’s manipulation tactics to remove public-interest information from the internet.
Interfor International, the investigative firm helmed by our Advisory Board member Don Aviv, blogged about Forbidden Stories’ findings. The excerpts below raise awareness of the dirty tactics used by some reputation management agencies, and why it may pay to steer clear of them. That’s especially true if they promise to remove online content, a challenge we have written about here (and here).
Weaponizing Data Protection Regulations
Those who have studied Eliminalia’s strategy identified a pattern. When an article that included unpleasant truths about one of their clients appeared, the company began by sending takedown requests to the journalist, usually through a team member employing a false persona. If the journalist refused to remove their article, Eliminalia went after hosting providers, often weaponizing data protection laws such as the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), which was created in 2002 to protect copyrighted content, and the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), an EU privacy and human rights law, to push the provider to take down the material.
To exploit the DMCA, for example, they would copy an article, publish it on a third-party website with a falsified earlier date than the original and then claim the real article infringed on the law. Contesting a false claim of DMCA is not easy, leading to long and expensive legal battles many journalists are unable to afford.
Investigators found that if these methods did not work, Eliminalia would then try to hide the material through “deindexing,” which attempts to fool Google into hiding search terms from web results.
Throwing ‘Digital Atomic Bombs’
Eliminalia has used the strategy of “open redirects,” links that appear to drive traffic to legitimate websites but redirect to other fake sites.
At least 622 such websites have been identified. To make the sites appear legitimate, the company mixes content from real sources with positive information about individuals with the same names as their clients.
This method seems to have been successful at influencing Google’s search results, effectively making articles that include allegations against the company’s clients disappear, while replacing them with positive spin.
Now, Eliminalia and their clients are in the news, and many of their “removed” links and content are back on Google.
Eliminalia is far from the first reputation management firm to create fake news sites to post fake content on. That has been done from the onset of this industry, along with a myriad of ways to post links in places where unwitting internet users would click on, thinking they were clicking on something else.
The problem with using reputation management providers who game the system using what are known as “black hat” methods is that their handiwork is often discovered and undone by Google. You also risk the chance of being identified as a client in investigative articles about them (check out the 2020 Wall Street Journal article, Google Hides News, Tricked by Fake Claims.)
Whether we like it or not, all of us have an online presence. Our reputation on the internet — shaped by social media posts, public data, news reports, and consumer reviews — can either bolster our professional success or contribute to its decline. We can choose to monitor and maintain the image we are presenting to the world online or leave our reputations vulnerable to misinformation or malice.
One of the best ways to be proactive online is to get ahead of everyone else in telling your own story. That’s why it’s of the utmost importance for successful people and businesses to cultivate a robust presence online through developing an online reputation management (ORM) strategy. But where’s the best place to start?
Enter: Reputation Reboot
Reputation Communications’ insider’s eBook, Reputation Reboot: What Every Business Leader, Rising Star & VIP Needs to Know, is an insightful primer and guide on building your ORM strategy. It contains everything you need to know about the basic steps you can take to shield your online reputation from harm, while helping you understand how optimize search engine results and navigate the murky waters of internet content regulations. It includes sections on crisis management, Internet law, privacy and other issues of concern to many.
Reputation Reboot was not written with the intent to scare you into implementing ORM, but instead to make you aware of the enormous opportunity there is in taking ownership of your online presence. When you embrace the informational power of the internet, there are more options for narrative and privacy control than you might think.
On March 8, 2022 from 1 – 2 pm EST, I will present a Continuing Legal Education (CLE)-accredited live audio program, Managing Your Online Reputation: What Every Attorney Needs to Know Now, via the West LegalEdcenter. It is part of the legal solutions provided by Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.
West LegalEdcenter offers the most current and comprehensive library of online CLE programs, including programs from the nation’s most respected national, state and local bar associations and distinguished CLE providers. They include live webcasts, as well as recorded programs that can be taken on demand.
My program will provide participants with the most essential steps for protecting and expanding their reputation and that of their practice where the world sees it: online.
Attorneys are often the first people contacted by clients who have reputational damage online. Your clients want to know what their legal rights are for removing negative content; how to identify the (often anonymous) attacker; and how to get it “wiped” away as quickly as possible. Now, attorneys are among those whose names, work and reputations may be attacked by deep fakes, online defamation, domain squatting and privacy invasions.
So, please save the date. if you are not able to attend the live presentation, it will be available online at the Thomson Reuters West LegalEdcenter for 180 days.
As part of a three-part discussion on the reputation risks facing high net worth families, we filmed this conversation about internet law with Ms. Rafin, an Internet law expert and Associate General Counsel – Media and Compliance at American Media, LLC, and Dan Shefet, a French lawyer based in Paris, and a leading expert in Internet and privacy law in Europe and other countries.
If you have questions regarding your legal rights online, it is a good starting place for learning more about what you need to know: the law is the same for everyone regardless of your economic standing. The video is 30-minutes long and addresses the most common reputation damage and related issues harming people online.
When you do not have any legal recourse for the reputation issues you face, an online reputation management strategy will create positive new on the Internet that will appear on the first page or two of Google, and replace much or all of what is there.
It is a timely piece, as the number of ultra-net worth families has risen everywhere. These are highlights of the piece, written by Kira Vermond.
Another way to be proactive? Protect the family name. Literally.
Shannon Wilkinson, founder and CEO of Reputation Communications, an online reputation management firm in New York, has worked with wealthy families for more than a decade. She says some families give their newborn babies more than silver rattles – they register their usernames online, or open their Twitter handles so they can’t be hijacked and misused years later.
Yet even if a family wants to remain out of the limelight, complete silence online is not an option.
Without a LinkedIn page, or a family office website, “you have no digital defense,” she says. In other words, if a family finds itself feeling the heat over, say, a former employee’s tell-all interview, those articles will be the first links readers find when they search. And those links won’t drop to the second page – and essentially out of sight – unless something else takes their place. That can take months or even longer.
The best line of attack is, again, to anticipate problems and create a wall of neutral online information. Hire an online reputation management firm to create a website that lists philanthropic interests. Or have articles written and placed in publications about family causes.
…Finally, perform thorough background checks on any employee who will be in contact with the family. That goes double for new love interests, says Wilkinson. Their background could come back to bite the family.
“If you’re dating someone who has a history of making lewd or racist or inappropriate comments on social media, your relationship with them is kind of an endorsement. It can really impact your reputation,” she says.
Ever wonder how online reputation repair really works? That is, when it is done right: when it is not outsourced to other countries, or implemented using the kind of tactics that lead to a Wall Street Journal exposé, or results in disappointment.
Look no further. Reputation Reboot: What Every Business Leader, Rising Star & VIP Needs to Know, is now available as a free, downloadable eBook.
If you are a high net worth individual, a high-profile VIP or on a fast-professional ascent and want to know how reputation repair is done for people like you, this succinct insider’s guide was written for you. It is based on our years of experience and written by Reputation Communications’ founder and CEO, Shannon Wilkinson.
Here are two reviews from readers of Reputation Reboot:
“Be forewarned: it is not a step-by-step “how-to” guide, but a big-picture look at how online reputation management works when you are in a position to attract significant online content online…not all of it necessarily credible, accurate or positive.”
“It gives CEOs and other high-profile individuals both a deep and granular understanding of why they need “to build a robust online presence: to safeguard the reputation of their name or company and bolster its defense against irrelevant or misleading information.”
Reputation Reboot can also be accessed on Amazon Kindle.
In the podcast we discuss networks, risk management, partnering with the right vendors, and reputation management trends and concerns. I am pleased to share it with you here: Family Office Connections: Managing Your Online Reputation.
A family office is a privately held company that handles investment management and wealth management for a wealthy family, generally one with over $100 million in investable assets, with the goal being to effectively grow and transfer wealth across generations.
While my insights re serving high net wealth clients are highlighted in the podcast, so are online reputation management tips everyone can benefit from. I hope you will find it a helpful resource.
A three-part series of live, 30-minute briefings with reputation management, Internet law, investigations, due diligence and risk mitigation experts will take place on August 5, 12 and 19, 2020. Registration is free and may be made via the links below. The program will be held on Zoom.
Focusing on reputation risk facing high-net-worth families (HNWFs), the program is hosted by Reputation Communications and moderated by its founder and CEO, Shannon Wilkinson.
“In a digital world, everyone faces reputation risk,” says Shannon Wilkinson. “But high-net-worth families and individuals face special scrutiny and a dangerous loss of privacy both online and off. Online personal and reputational attacks, threats and disparagement, unfounded allegations, disinformation campaigns, impersonation schemes, disturbing online threats, extortion, and harassment are some examples. These risks can impact all areas of their professional and personal life. Having served victims of such issues for a decade, I want to provide HNWFs with my own insight, as well as credible information from colleagues who are experienced in helping such families.”
Program details follow.
Wednesday, August 5: Alert: The Reputation Risk Setting Now.
Shannon Wilkinson will introduce the program and summarize the types of reputation risks HNWFs face, including generational ones, from family leaders to teens and college students.
David Niccolini will provide an overview of the current environment contributing to the aforementioned threats, examples of the types of risks HNWFs encounter now, and the importance of situational awareness.
Tim Murphy will introduce cybersecurity threats that are increasingly common and unique to HNWFs, including account takeover and ransomware attacks.
Click here to register for the August 5th briefing.
Wednesday, August 12: Alarm: Your Internet Legal Rights in the U.S. & Abroad.
Shannon Wilkinson will introduce the program and highlight the differences between American Internet and privacy laws and those in Europe and other countries.
Christine Rafin will summarize why consumers have so few Internet legal rights in the U.S., and address common questions relating to the removal of negative, defamatory and/or infringing material from the Internet.
Dan Shefet will explain how the “Right to Be Forgotten” law operates in Europe and Argentina; provide examples of the types of content that is removable on Google; and describe the privacy laws in Europe, which are far stronger than in the U.S. He will briefly address similar online privacy laws in other countries.
Click here to register for the August 12 briefing.
Wednesday, August 19: Adapt: Double-Due Diligence & Expert Intel.
Shannon Wilkinson will introduce the program and why the issues of due diligence and investigations are relevant in high-net-worth reputation risk cases.
Don Aviv will provide inside examples of the types of threats that due diligence has revealed, especially on the personal rather than organizational side of HNWFs.
Arun Rao will share insight into the types of reputation risk issues facing prominent public figures like elected officials, candidates for public office, entertainers, and high-profile executives. Key issues include investigating and addressing false allegations and “fake news.”
Click here to register for the August 19 briefing.
About the Speakers
Don Aviv: As president of Interfor International, Don has managed, led, and coordinated teams on thousands of due diligence and investigative cases, many with complex aspects and multinational reaches. He directly supports chief security officers and general counsel of some of the world’s leading corporations, financial institutions, and family offices.
Tim Murphy: Tim is a recognized leader in global cybersecurity and intelligence. In his previous role as Deputy Director of the FBI, and now as CEO of Consortium Networks, a cyber network and solutions firm, his experience covers all operational aspects of counterintelligence, criminal, cyber, and intelligence programs. He has experience in ensuring the technological and cybersecurity of companies, high-net-worth individuals and their family offices.
David Niccolini: David Niccolini co-founded TorchStone in 2010. The company has won numerous awards and has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, the Washingtonian, and the PBS News Hour. Over the years, David has directed security, consulting, and investigative operations across six continents on behalf of families (to include Forbes 400) and multinational corporations (to include Fortune 50).
Christine Rafin: As Associate General Counsel – Media and Compliance at American Media, LLC, Christine advises on defamation, privacy, intellectual property and publicity issues for a wide range of brands, including podcasts, online publications and magazines from National Enquirer to US Weekly. Christine has extensive experience representing high net worth individuals in federal and state civil, commercial and regulatory matters. She is an expert in the rapidly-evolving fields of Internet law, digital marketing law, and data privacy and security law.
Arun Rao: As the President of IGI, Arun draws on his experience at the Department of Justice, the White House, and the New York County District Attorney’s Office to advise clients on crisis and risk management. Arun and his team provide concierge-level assistance to elected officials, candidates for office, entertainers, and other prominent individuals facing reputational attacks, threats, and disparagement. As Principal of The Lenzner Firm (IGI’s affiliated law firm), Arun also provides counsel on potential legal remedies.
Dan Shefet: A French lawyer based in Paris, Dan Shefet holds a Philosophy Degree and a Law Degree from the University of Copenhagen. Specializing in European Law, Competition Law as well as Human Rights in general and in the IT environment in particular, he is a noted public speaker on IT Law, Data Privacy and Human Rights on the internet. In 2014 he founded the Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy (AAID) the main objective of which is to introduce a general principle of accountability on the internet.
Shannon Wilkinson: As the founder of Reputation Communications, one of the first firms in the online reputation management space, Shannon has advised numerous high-net-worth clients, including CEOs, business leaders, luxury brands, public figures, philanthropists, Forbes 400 and Forbes 500 clients, entertainment industry icons, FinTech leaders, tech founders, venture capitalists, and others. Reputation Communications is based in New York.
