Imagine the scenario. You apply for a few jobs and you wait. Weeks go past without a response from any of them, and you begin to wonder what happened. Did they get your email ? Could they open your CV Word document ? Did you mistype your phone number or email ?

One day you are Googling around the web and decide to put in your own name just to see what comes up. The first two entries are what you would expect; your Facebook page and your LinkedIn page, but to your horror you see a link to an article about a crime you were cleared of. Then it hits you - anyone that reads your CV is going to do some due diligence on anyone they wish to employ, and anyone who searches your name would have seen the offending article.

You read an article on The Telegraph called Criminals can claim 'right to be forgotten' following landmark Google case. You wonder if there is a way to remove the offending article, so you consult with a few lawyers, who tell you that it can't be removed because its viable news. Your heart sinks as you wonder how you are going to find a job.

There are solutions to this problem. There are organizations that can "push down" hostile web pages :-

• XR1 has it's BackWatch project, which can deflect searches away and detect when searches are being made, who is making them and the context.