Often it seems like everyone is eager to establish an online presence, to further career, connect with friends and family or just let the world know that they are here. Yet there are those who carefully remain invisible online. These digital invisibles are not neglecting the online world, they are instead, managing their own reputations to keep off the Internet, often watching the rest of us trample about the digital world, making a lot of mistakes, and sometimes winning attention and glory.

In writing this, I’m thinking of three individuals I know who define the idea of being digital invisibles.

Digital Invisible #1 – This person is a key business player for many new technology companies, who, purposefully erased all traces of their digital trail about five years ago. Gone are blogs, Flickr photos and all other forms of online presence of this individual, who has vigilantly removed online identity, leaving only a Linkedin profile, connected to less than 10 people. Speaking with this individual recently, and explaining how hard it was to find them online these last few years, they remarked “not being online is the new exclusivity.”

Digital Invisible #2 – This individual works to build websites, and in the 90s received high acclaim for being one of the most talented and creative designers in the industry, but around 2001 the Google trail stops abruptly for this person. They’ve maintained a digital invisible status for about eight years now, and have purposefully stayed out of social networking, and requested bloggers to remove mentions of their name. While this person is digitally invisible, they are still online, watching the space and continuing to create visionary website designs for clients. Known offline by word-of-mouth only is the reputation that this individual is succeeding with, taking new projects from a network of colleagues that the individual has experience and history of working together with.

Digital Invisible #3 – This individual is a writer, and the only digital trail you’ll find is of articles published in various magazines over the last 10 years. I’m qualifying this individual as being a digital invisible, because of the purposeful avoidance of social networking and refusal to join Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter. Only this person’s by-line articles speak for their professional reputation, and absent are those embarrassing photos that sometimes end up on Facebook from a friend’s fancy dress party. If this person is out at a party, they make a point to request no photos be posted on Facebook.

I’m fascinated by these three people I know who work at making sure their online reputation is as invisible as possible, and that only a few bits of their lives, of their choice only, are shared online. While most people I know personally, and in business are working toward increasing their online presence through social networking, blogging, photos and videos, it is these digital invisibles that fascinate me most. Do they know something more that the rest of us don’t? Is it just because they are private about their lives, or, as two of them are technically advanced, do they have compelling reasons to stay as invisible as they can online that the rest of us just aren’t thinking about?

Recently I’ve seen people talking more about contemplating committing “Googlecide” and erasing their online presence. A number of people I know have killed their Facebook accounts, with concern about privacy protection. In thinking about managing online reputation, is being a digital invisible a path toward success, or an impossible scenario to contemplate if you are a professional seeking to build your reputation?

Now and then, a case will come up that begs the question about whether being open and transparent online is safe. In America, someone announced they were going away on a vacation for a few weeks, and came back to find their house had been robbed. Women I know who fear stalkers are fearful to share any details about their locations online. A photo of a family was used without permission as a billboard advertisement for a company in Poland.

As more cases of inappropriate uses of our digital content happen, will more of us want to commit Googlecide and become one of the digital invisibles?