Law Office of Richard Kuslan LLC

Without even a glance at the Deep Web, people search the internet (sometimes known as the "Surface Web") for their own names and find, to their surprise, the following freely available to anyone:

• Home phone numbers and residence addresses going back many years, often decades;
• Old resumes on job sites;
• Images others have posted and tagged with their names;
• Legal documents made public record in court filings;
• Defamatory comments.

(Try searching for yourself at Zabasearch, Inteliius or Skipease.)

The business executives I know are rightly concerned about reputation -- both theirs and their company's -- but it surprises me how few make a regular review of the net for references to themselves and their goods or services.  Daily or weekly review would constitute an obsession, but for most situations, a quarterly review is sufficient.

When any of the above are discovered - and something will display that disgruntles you at some point -- what can a person do?   In some cases, a strong letter or email from an attorney is sufficient to bring about the desired result, such as removal of the offending post.  But what if the defamatory comment is made anonymously?  

Depending upon the website, the fact of poster anonymity may not be determinative of outcome.   As an example, I represented a business executive about whom libelous comments were made online.  The magnitude of the problem was serious: the negative comments appeared on a website frequented by thousands of potential customers.  My letter, citing relevant legal authority and site policies themselves, resulted in the removal of the comments within 24 hours of the site's receipt of my communication.  The executive was very pleased with these results.   

A cached version of a web page -- as with all webpages -- is normally discoverable through Google for a period of several weeks thereafter.  For situations in which urgent removal is required, Google provides a removal tool, which the site owner can access in Webmaster Tools.  Webmasters will not perform this action without a demand made upon them because they think it sufficient for the content to naturally drop out once the site deletes the content.

I confirmed the identity of the poster, using a variety of web search techniques.  Contact with the poster himself may also be part of the strategy by which the injury can be addressed.

TO BE CONTINUED