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Online reputation-monitoring via search engines has increased – 57% of adult internet users now use search engines to find information about themselves online, up from 47% in 2006. Activities tied to maintaining an online identity have grown as people post information on profiles and other virtual spaces – 46% of online adults have created their own profile on a social networking site, up from just 20% in 2006. Monitoring the digital footprints of others has also become much more common—46% of internet users search online to find information about people from their past, up from 36% in 2006. Likewise, 38%% have sought information about their friends, up from 26% in 2006

Young adults are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. When compared with older users, they more often customize what they share and whom they share it with. 

Compared with older users, young adults are not only the most attentive to customizing their privacy settings and limiting what they share via their profiles, but they are also generally less trusting of the sites that host their content

The increased prevalence of self-monitoring and observation of others creates a dynamic environment where people promote themselves or shroud themselves depending on their intended audience and circumstances. There are good reasons to be more vigilant. Online reputation matters; 44% of online adults have searched for information about someone whose services or advice they seek in a professional capacity. People are now more likely to work for an employer that has policies about how they present themselves online and co-workers and business competitors now keep closer tabs on one another

Yet, even those who are careful about their own disclosures have to stay on top of the identifying material that others may have posted about them on social networking profiles, photo- and video-sharing sites, Twitter, and blogs. 

Social networking users are especially attuned to the intricacies of online reputation management. Two-thirds now say that they have changed the privacy settings for their profile to restrict what they share with others online. Most have also chosen to prune certain friends from their networks when they become too large or contacts fall out of favor, and many actively “revise” the information that others post about them. 

Stories of reputational mishaps abound and persist online—particularly among celebrities, politicians and other prominent figures. Yet, relatively few among the internet masses have had bad experiences due to undesirable information being circulated about them online.

Over time, internet users have actually become less concerned about the amount of information available about them online—just 33% of internet users say they worry about how much information is available about them online, down from 40% in December 2006. However, most of this decrease is attributable to those who have never used a search engine to check up on their digital footprints. Those who do monitor their search results are more likely than non-searchers to express concern (37% vs. 27%).