Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Does Google think I'm "evil?"

When Google Plus first started up I really liked the idea, the circles especially. Being able to post things only to specific groups of people seemed like a dream come true. My ttc/infertility folks wouldn't see my kinky/BDSM stuff. My fellow Jews could opt out of seeing pictures of my tattoos. I could keep my polyamory off the public posts. When the the name thing exploded I took a "wait and see" attitude. I did change my profile to my "legal" name but stopped promoting it on my other SocNet/Blog stuff. I also became very careful about what I posted. I'd hoped that Google would come to their senses and stop this name nonsense. Then I'd switch back to my protected name and have a blast in my various circles.

I was wrong. Mr. Schmidt, Google Chairman, has recently been very clear that G+ isn't a SocNet but an "Identity Service." Well, no thank you Google! I don't need or want an identity service. He was also pretty clear that the focus on "real" identity was about online purchasing. (Ah, so it is all about selling crap.) An even bigger "no thank you" on my part. Then the cherry on top of the shit sundae was this quote:
"But my general rule is people have a lot of free time and people on the Internet, there are people who do really really evil and wrong things on the Internet, and it would be useful if we had strong identity so we could weed them out. I’m not suggesting eliminating them, what I’m suggesting is if we knew their identity was accurate, we could rank them. Think of them like an identity
rank."

If you want to see the full transcript of the interview with Schmidt you can see it here: https://plus.google.com/117378076401635777570/posts/CjM2MPKocQP

So, does this mean that all of us who are concerned about privacy, and therefore wish to use something other than our legal names, are budding Internet sociopaths?

I don't need/want an identity service. I don't need yet another way for advertisers to target me and my household. As someone outside the mainstream, I really don't need my legal name plastered on the Internet any more than it already is. So bye bye Google Plus. I'll be deleting my account this weekend.

::sigh:: Too bad. It could have been a great idea.

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