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Reputation Protection on Online Rating Sites

2017; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.3037399

1556-5068

Anne S.Y. Cheung, Wolfgang Schulz,

Digital Rights Management and Security

The 21st century has witnessed a blossoming of rating, evaluation or even blacklisting sites. Namely, teachers, lawyers and doctors are rated openly by their students, clients and patients. We are living in a 'reputation nation,' where our conducts are evaluated often by anonymous individuals in different aspects, entailing the dangers of shame sanctions. This reputation rating system is far from being a system of formal adjudication. It may carry false or incorrect information, and may not allow an individual to correct such information. Relying on defamation law may not be helpful to the victim targeted as the defendant maybe an anonymous individual expressing his honest opinion. Equally, invoking privacy law may be a frustrating experience when the information is of legitimate public interest and it is already in the public domain. In the absence of satisfactory legal solution and remedies, some have resorted to alternative methods of "reputation management."