Here we go again. A year ago, Blizzard decided it would be a terrific wheeze to force people to reveal their real names when posting on the WOW forums, despite the obvious problems of harassment that could lead to.
Now it seems to be Google's turn to have a fit of July madness. According to The Register, using your real name will be mandatory for anyone using Google+ and you'll have to prove your ID with a passport or other official document. My answer to that is the same as my answer to Blizzard and Facebook:
No
I do not choose to give you my personal information for you to hawk around the internet to any fruitcake who takes a random dislike to what I say. It is not there for prospective employers to Google and decide that they don't want the kind of weirdo that writes about video games. I will not hand over information to "prove" who I am that could be used for identity theft if when you get hacked, either.
My identity as a blogger and my identity in real life are completely separate and keeping that separation is more important to me than carrying on using Blogger. So if this blog stops updating or vanishes randomly at some point in the future, you'll know why. I won't co-operate with the gradual erosion of privacy on the internet and I suggest that you don't either.
I hear Wordpress a callin'
ReplyDeleteI mean.. Google potentially has a point. You _could_ (naively) I suppose look at it from a pov that using real identification might stop terrorist activities and the like being arranged from anonymous email addresses.. However, it'd be stupid to assume that said bad guys wouldn't just use faked ID. Or switch back to Hotmail :P
But.. Bah. This made me cross.
It's the mandatory disclosure of your name to the whole world that makes me cross. That's got nothing to do with counter-terrorism, it's that creepy Facebook dogma that you must be identified at all times.
ReplyDeleteIt's the online equivalent of requiring everyone to wear a photo-id badge every time they leave the house. Even the most extreme police states don't require that.
Just deleted my G+ account after reading about it at multiple sites. Just not worth the trouble , twitter and fb meet all my networking needs.Google has condemned its baby before it had a chance to grow.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I'm [/cast understatement] not keen on the concept of having to scan my PERSONAL documentation into the internetz.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy for my online life and my RL to merge somewhat... but on MY terms. I do have FB, I do have semi-linked gaming and RL blogs but the aforementioned scanning of ID. Not a chance.
And in all honesty - I'm not sure Google+ is doing it for me. I guess not being one of the Twitterati I'm kinda used to keeping up with my online life via blogs and my RL via FB. There is some cross-over, sure, but Google+ just seems to add another layer into things that I need to check and keep up with. Kinda like this
I'm with Izzy - if Google insists on this madness I will overcome my dislike of Wordpress (or, more accurately, Wordpress' dislike of ME) and go blog there. I like my blog(s) too much to desert them *sniffles*