Watch those partner links

By Deborah Radcliff

April 1, 2002 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Another way companies gather information about their competitors is to follow links and read testimonials to see what strategic information others expose. John Jay McGonagle, managing partner at the competitive intelligence firm The Helicon Group in Blandon, Pa., suggests taking the following preventative measures:

Conduct searches to see who's linking to your company's site. This can be done by typing the command "link:www.yourcompanyname.com" into Palo Alto, Calif.-based AltaVista Co.'s search engine.

Ask yourself what these links infer about your company.

Use nondisclosure agreements with the partners and suppliers that work with you on expansion, development and IT projects -- at least until critical ramp-up and quiet times have passed.

Verify that partners are abiding by these contracts by conducting keyword searches on their sites.

Conduct similar searches on trade, industry and government watchdog sites.

Keep to a minimum the strategic information filed with government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and zoning and planning commissions.

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