So, I just sent my second ever tweet to facebook's new German policy director, twitting to the world that I consider fb's real identity policy a joke, that they should protect their users' identities first, then reward them like any other (sic) dating site.
Yes, one of facebooks' characteristics is that it is a dating site. People connect, re-connect, marry, get divorced, re-marry, all via facebook.
Companies flirt with their customers or prospects.
And some companies are in bed with each other.
Back to the "real identity" question. One aspect that I have never ever seen in the discussion is, why the f*** we are once again discriminating against individuals while we profess our love for companies and other entities, on fb and elsewhere.
First, a question: when you are out and about, shopping, at the movies, on the beach, anywhere, and someone talks to you, do you go "hold it, I need your real name, and show me an ID, then we talk"?
Yes, we agree the internet is a little different but not that much.
In my humble, easily ridiculed opinion, there is no difference between the pseudonym "Jake Smithy" and the company name "Mr. Smith Inc.".
The "real identity" of Mr. Smith Inc. is not always clear. Maybe they have a website with their CEO's name, maybe not.
Companies are collective pseudonyms, often enough it is hard to get a "real individual" when you contact them.
You think you know, but you don't.
This one company I dealt with was a tiny outfit, basically a one person company. You would never have known -- man, your paycheck came from a different city and had the sender as "The Company Name, Finance Department, POB 12345, City 0000001, CA).
If you, dear reader, see a user name like, say, MrTangerineMan, you know that you do not know.
If you see ACME Inc. you know just as little -- but fb and others don't care.
Now, MrTangerineMan tries to sell you something, eehh, you will be careful, ACME Inc. does the same -- well, you tell me.
Are celebrities names real identities? Do you care about people in less secure countries than the US or Western Europe? Don't you think that apart of a few incurable predators, the whole real identity thing is a greater threat to those who are already vulnerable?
My former boss can buy himself an island if he feels like it, Grandma Smith has no other place to go than her downtown Philly apartment.
Now, any more or less normal person will tell you that the moment you have friends on fb, someone will know who you are, even if you use a pseudonym. Catching active criminals on fb is like shooting fish in a barrel.
Right, and fb tries to get you to snitch on your friends.
Why can't fb go and flag a new user with a big red dot or something until they have a few friends?
At which time the dot changes to green.
Like on any good porn site?
A social network is an ideal place for a web of trust. If you do not have the know-how or the patience for that, don't blame your users.
I am using a pseudonym, and if you need to find out who the real me is, get a warrant and talk to Google. Or send me a really nice email and I'll tell you. My internet use generally does not involve hiding my IP address either. You are welcome.
And one more thing: say you are a software company that makes money, i.e. not poor bring your own chair folks. If you are not donating a couple of MBps of bandwith to the TOR project or the JonDo anonymizers, then I will not believe any claim of "we protect data, we protect privacy".
Simple, way simple.
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