Maybe Amazon is taking a real lesson from fellow corporate giant Apple and their seemingly endless woes with having Foxconn as a manufacturer of some of the world’s most popular products. The massive online retailer is getting out in front of what could be a blown up out of proportion situation (as just about anything and everything is these days anyway) by cutting ties with a German company of questionable character.

The Washington Post reports

Online retailer Amazon reacted to mounting criticism Monday by firing a security company named in a German television documentary about alleged mistreatment of foreign temporary workers.

An Amazon spokeswoman in Germany said the company had ended its relationship with Hensel European Security Services “with immediate effect.”

Harris Interactive has released its 14th annual Reputation Quotient (RQ) Study which measures the reputations of the most visible companies in the US.

The top spot in 2013 list (below left) goes to Amazon. Google and Apple both slipped in the rankings from 2012 (below right) with Apple having one of the largest point drops year-over-year in the list overall.

2013 Top Reputations

2012 Top Reputations

The red box around UPS indicates that it doesn’t show up anywhere on the 2013 list after its top 10 of 2012. Ouch.

Reappearing on the list after falling out of the Top 60 in 2012 was Facebook coming in at #42.

One of the more disturbing findings (in my opinion of course) of this particular report is what elements are now viewed as characteristics that make one see a company as great. Look at the change from 2011 to 2013.

Social media monitoring software provider Trackur–which, not coincidentally, is run by me–today announced the launch of CrisisShield.

What is CrisisShield, I hear you ask? Well, it’s something not offered by any other social media monitoring vendor–completely free reputation insurance. Yep, CrisisShield is a free online reputation management insurance policy for customers on select Trackur plans.

CrisisShield comes without any additional fees and provides customers on Trackur’s Premium & Ultimate social media monitoring plans with free peace of mind, including:

• Up to two hours of online reputation management & crisis response consulting.
  • Additional hours charged at a discount on the normal hourly rate.

• Up to two hours of online reputation legal counsel.
  • Advocacy on your behalf, and additional hours beyond initial assessment and counseling charged at a discount on the normal hourly rate