Intelius Introduces TrueRep for Consumers and Small Business Owners to Manage Their Online Identity and Reputation

BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Intelius, a leading information commerce company, today unveiled a new subscription service designed to help consumers take control of their online identity and reputation. TrueRep uses public records and commercially available information such as social network public profiles to give consumers insight into information available about them, and helps them understand how others might view them based on that information. It is designed for consumers to monitor and manage their online personal information, so they can feel more confident about their online persona.

A recent Harris Interactive survey confirmed that 90% of U.S. adults want more control over the information that is available about them online. They realize that as employers, friends and colleagues routinely use websites and search engines to gather insight about them, those records can have a profound impact on their personal and professional reputation.  To date, consumers may have had little awareness and therefore exercised no control over this information. TrueRep will allow this capability.

The beta release of TrueRep is being launched today.  Intelius is inviting existing customers to participate, but consumers are welcome to participate by going to www.truerep.com and signing up. The beta period is expected to last several months with new features added during that time to provide more tools and value to subscribers. Intelius expects to launch TrueRep in the Spring of 2011.

"TrueRep represents a very important step forward for consumers to become more aware and engaged with their online identity and reputation," said Prakash Kondepudi, Senior Vice President for Consumer ServicesBusiness at Intelius.  "As the industry leader in the people search space, we heard from consumers that they wanted greater transparency and influence over their own digital identity."

TrueRep introduces a new tool for each subscriber called Reputation Score.  A subscriber's Reputation Score is only viewable by them.  The score will initially be tallied based on 15 different parameters from a subscriber's public profile based on three key areas – stability, trustworthiness and safety.  TrueRep will explain to each subscriber what their score means and how they can influence it based on personal preferences.

"Each of us has a digital footprint that begins to take shape the day our first baby pictures are posted on the web," said Jim Adler, Chief Privacy Officer at Intelius. "As that digital identity grows with public records and commercially available information added year after year, the pool of information from which people can formulate a judgment about us continues to evolve. We have reached a point where we can no longer ignore our digital persona but must be aware of it and take steps to control our reputation, online as well as off."

TrueRep is also a valuable service for small business owners.  In today's tough economy, small business owners must be aware of the information about them online.  Consumers are now using the Internet to research people they do business with to ensure they are reputable.  TrueRep gives small business owners the ability to monitor what information is available about them and to promote themselves.

TrueRep Trial Begins

TrueRep is fundamentally about providing consumers awareness and control of their online reputation.

• Awareness. After proceeding through an authentication process, new subscribers are shown a summary of their background information available online. Content is presented in five categories: address history, personal information, professional information, criminal records and civil judgments.  This information represents the foundation of their digital persona and gives consumers full transparency of the public information – right or wrong – that is associated with them.
• Control. TrueRep introduces several tools for subscribers that can be used to influence how others see them online.  The service will enable subscribers to suppress sensitive contact information, including two addresses and one phone number from their online profile so that anyone conducting a people search or background check on certain Intelius sites* will not be able to see that information.** In the future, TrueRep will also enable subscribers additional tools to enable consumers to control their online reputation.  
• Promote. In addition to those tools, TrueRep will also empower subscribers to promote themselves if they wish.  Tools are provided so subscribers can improve Google results associated with their name and increase their visibility online.

Consumers can learn more about TrueRep by going to www.truerep.com, and are welcome to join the trial for $9.95 per month.

ABOUT INTELIUS

Intelius is a leading information commerce company providing businesses and consumers with information to empower the decision-making process for peace of mind and security. To date, Intelius has gained more than 12 million unique customers who use Intelius' information to reconnect and protect their loved ones, businesses and assets. Intelius has 30 million unique users visiting its sites each month.  Intelius' services include background checks, people search services, comprehensive employment screening services and an award-winning identity theft prevention product, IDProtect™. Intelius is one of the top 100 most trafficked sites on the Internet, according to comScore/Media Metrix.  For more about Intelius' business, news and policies, visit www.intelius.com/corp.

*The Intelius people search sites included in the suppression capability are clearly listed in the Privacy tab of the TrueRep product.  Intelius will eventually include all its sites.  At the beginning of the beta period, however, only information from reports from Intelius.com, LookUpAnyone.com, PeopleLookUp.com and PublicRecords.com will be suppressed.  Additional sites will be added to this list as this service is integrated with those operating sites.

** The suppression feature in TrueRep allows a subscriber to suppress two addresses and one phone number from one profile they select.  There is the chance that the information a subscriber suppresses could be found in a search on one of the participating Intelius sites due to the fact that Intelius may have more than one profile attributed to a particular person or that new data has been added to a record.  For more information, please refer to the Intelius Privacy Policy – http://www.intelius.com/privacy.php.  

SOURCE Intelius