Reputation
How To Remove Embarrassing Photos
Do you worry that embarrassing photos of you online could negatively impact your chances of getting that new job or promotion? You’re not alone. Having undesirable pictures in the public domain is becoming more of an issue for adult professionals. Knowing some images may put you in a bad light on the internet can hold you back in life.
Often, these photos are a case of a minor indiscretion blown out of proportion or misrepresentation of context. These circumstances often do not reflect the truth of what happened or who you are as a person.
However, establishments like The Reputation Management Company can help you remove or bury these defamatory images. We’ll explore more about unwanted content removal in this article.
How Do Embarrassing Photos Materialize?
There are a few ways and reasons why inappropriate photographs of you may be circulated. No matter the circumstances, it can come as a shock.
1. A Small Indiscretion
When embarrassing photos are circulated online, most people feel highly accountable and embarrassed about their behavior. However, anyone can end up in this situation even if they do not intend to do anything wrong.
Sometimes, people will take a photo with friends that pokes fun at something that others take seriously. without thinking Yes, this is a bit crude, but we’ve all been there – you’ve had one or two drinks, and you feel like doing something fun and silly.
Some people may come across the image and take it wrong, resulting in serious repercussions for the person in the photo. People can lose their jobs and reputation over a small matter like this, which can also affect their ability to find work again.
So, content removal is necessary to avoid these kinds of repercussions. Our team at The Reputation Management Company can help you to deal with small indiscretions that have put you in a negative light.
2. Misrepresentation of Context
Another circumstance is when photos are taken and circulated without the photographer having all the information. This happens commonly. There are endless ways actions can be misconstrued and misrepresented. For example, perhaps an image gets out there wherein it looks like you are buying drugs from someone. The photographer may even add a caption to their post along the lines of “drug dealing right here in the park where I bring my kids. Shocking!”
Perhaps what happened is that you were getting a friend to help you propose or do something special for a loved one, and you discreetly needed them to hand you something for your plan. Perhaps the photographer didn’t stick around to see what else happened. So, what was a beautiful thing that gets taken out of context and makes you look like you are up to no good?
When this happens, it can impact your reputation in the eyes of friends and family, co-workers, current and future employers, and strangers online. The Reputation Company can help you right these kinds of misunderstandings.
3. A Personal Attack
Sometimes, a person who has a vendetta may purposefully circulate inappropriate, embarrassing photos of you as a form of revenge. Perhaps someone posts images of you in connection with a crime such as fraud, leading to stressful investigations into your activities. Knowing that you are suspected of such a thing can seriously damage your reputation, even if it isn’t true.
A colleague is jealous of your success and posts pictures of you looking disheveled after a few drinks at a work party. This could look harmless fun but can damage the way people perceive you. If you do not feel comfortable with that image, you should try to get it removed. The Reputation Management Company can help.
One of the most common types of revenge photo circulation is publishing intimate photos. People who are dating often send sexy pictures to their partners to spice up the relationship.
When the relationship ends, an ex may be hurt and angry. To get back at their ex, they may post intimate photos taken during the relationship online. Explicit images will damage your reputation and career. Another aspect of this issue is that people often do not report it, as they are too ashamed to do so.
How Do I Get Rid of Photos that are Damaging to my Reputation?
There are a few standard ways to deal with embarrassing photos. Depending on the circumstances, you can have them removed or buried.
1. You Can Remove Images in Some Circumstances
The best way to get rid of embarrassing photos is to remove them. This can go a few ways, depending on the circumstances. If it is a minor content removal issue, you may be able to simply ask the person who posted the image to take it down. If the matter has gone viral, been taken up by authoritative figures, or the person who posted it refuses to take down images, it could be more challenging. In this case, some laws can help you get the image removed and help you to prosecute the person who posted them for defamation of character.
Typically, perpetrators may be prosecuted under the Protection from Harassment Acts or Human Rights legislation.
Prosecution standards vary significantly depending on your country or state of residence. In most cases, sharing intimate photos is illegal, and perpetrators could face time in jail for the offense. However, there needs to be proof that the perpetrator intended to cause harm or distress because of this. Victims of embarrassing images being circulated may also claim copyright infringement if they had originally taken the photo themselves.
Social media platforms have their own rules regarding inappropriate images, which vary from platform to platform. The Reputation Management Company can help you navigate the right course of action to take in any case.
Unfortunately, if a photo has been extensively shared, it can take a long time to remove it from the internet, even if you go the legal route. New places where the photo is shared can keep cropping up for a long time after the initial publication. It can take months or even years to get rid of it. It is better to try to remove it than to let the image continue to circulate.
2. You Can Bury Embarrassing Images
If it’s a struggle to remove images, you can ‘bury’ them. This option means you work to override the negative with positive, professional ones. Using SEO tactics, you can get the positive images to rank higher than the embarrassing photos, which means the latter won’t crop up as soon as someone searches for you. The photos will still be online, but they will be on the final web pages and therefore not as visible. Most people won’t even click through to the second search page, so that this method can be quite successful.
However, it does require work.
Simply posting a professional photo once won’t help remove the negative, especially if an embarrassing image is on multiple sites and platforms. You’ll need to post your new images across platforms and fill in the metadata so that searches pick up that it’s you. The Reputation Management Company can help guide you to do this. Here are a few tips to get you started with content removal:
Diversify Content
Make sure you post images and written content across multiple platforms so that the search engine picks up on these rather than the embarrassing photos. The more depth there is to your campaign, the less chance there is of the undesirable photos cropping up.
Use Filenames and Tags
Use your own name in photo and content file names and tags so that the search engine picks up the copy.
Metadata
Be sure to fill in metadata columns as deeply as possible. Ensure you include details about who snapped the image, who is in it, what it’s about, and who the copyright belongs to. This makes your professional images more credible than the others.
Republish
Search engines penalize for repeated written content, but this is not the case for photos. This means you can republish the same (positive) photos as much as you like. Using just one or two over multiple platforms gives them a good chance of ranking highly.
Cross-link
Once you have an image that is ranking well, you can link it to your website, blog, social media pages, etc., to help bury negative photos.
Persevere
Unfortunately, it can take time for search engines to pick up on new images and content. So, you need to keep going with your campaign. If you don’t, the embarrassing photos are likely to stay at the top of searches.
Some Closing Thoughts
It is possible to sort out embarrassing content removal, though it takes some know-how and perseverance. That is why many people prefer to work with The Reputation Management Company to help get their embarrassing photos off the internet. A professional reputation management company has the experience and resources to make sure your reputation is safe, so you can live your life to the fullest.
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