Reputation management

Online reputation management (ORM) is a service that sprung up to fill the need for an antibody to the worst aspects of Web 2.0 (gossip, slander, invasion of privacy). However, there is nothing they do which cannot be done by yourself, albeit for a lot of time, lawyer fees, and the possibility of the Streisand effect coming back to bite you. So, often it is easier and cheaper, not to mention more effective, to just hire a "reputation expert" to do the work. Their most basic service keeps your name scrubbed from most online people directories and junk mail lists. Having to pay money to a third party to keep off such lists sucks because they shouldn't be allowed to list anyone without their express consent in the first place.

A downside of reputation management is that cranks have tried to use it to whitewash their own stupidity. A case in point is creationist politician Cheri Yecke.