Every January 28, Microsoft celebrates Data Privacy Day to help the industry, academics, and privacy and data advocates discuss online reputation and privacy issues among customers, organizations and government officials. In conjunction, Microsoft released the results from a survey of 5,000 people in select countries worldwide, including the U.S., to determine how they manage their online reputation.

While the findings are consistent with recent data from other industry sources, it’s nice to see some fresh statistics. Microsoft found that 91 percent of people have done something regarding online reputation management, but only about 44 percent of adults think about the long-term consequences of their online activities. If that statistic is less than half for adults, I am curious to know what that number is like for teenagers; there’s a definite opportunity here to create awareness about the importance of online reputation management among adults and teens alike.

It is more important than ever to monitor your reputation. According to Microsoft, 37 percent of adults rarely or never do this. With free online reputation monitoring tools like Rhino360°, it is easy to listen to what people are saying about you online.

According to the study, 14 percent of people have been negatively impacted by the online activities of others. Of those, 21 percent believed it led to being fired from a job, 16 percent being refused health care, 16 percent believed it resulted in being turned down for a job they were applying for, and 15 percent being turned down for a mortgage.

It was interesting to learn that 57 percent of adults think about taking steps to keep their work and personal profiles private, but 49% of adults do not use privacy settings on social networking sites. Why is it so important to manage your privacy online? Because mistakes happen — 17% of people have inadvertently shared information online that was intended to remain private. Most commonly shared are details about one’s personal life (56%) and personal photos (38%). Check out our recent post to learn How to Change Your Facebook Privacy Settings.