Don't care about privacy? Prove it.

[lilfluff]

So, we have yet another executive saying we should stop with all this privacy talk. In this case, Randi Zuckerberg who is Marketing Director for facebook. In fact based on what she's said, "I think anonymity on the Internet has to go away. People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. … I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel like they can say whatever they want behind closed doors." (source: blog post on the EFF's website Randi Zuckerberg Runs in the Wrong Direction on Pseudonymity Online) she thinks that people won't misbehave if their real names will be attached to their actions...

Ma'am? Just how long have you been disconnected from the real world? People do cruel things all the time without the benefit of anonymity. Even when you remove teenagers (because frankly every last one of us is at least a touch insane as a teenager) and politicians from the equation you'll find plenty of people doing mean, cruel, things despite knowing that those who see them doing it know exactly who they are.

I believe in few if any absolutes. There are times to strip away anonymity. But you know, there are legal processes for that. Processes that start with showing there is a reason you need to dig into the matter. But I'm willing to entertain the possibility that she's right. I suggest that if she really believes this she start with herself. I won't demand she reveal what she does offline, but go completely public online. Real name everywhere no privacy settings turned on. I would want her to do one other thing. Make an honest count of how many times she hesitates to do something: Oops no can't post that it would say when no one will be home, oops no can't say that it will say when be niece will be at any after school even and some wacko upset with me might do something, oops no can't say that...

I think I have overall a rather boringly average life with little drama in it. Yet there are still things I would hesitate to talk about if this account had my full real name showing. Frankly, even with no more than my real first name shown (if you bother to look) I still flag some posts not to be shown to everyone. And some things I just don't mention. You'll notice that when I complain about work I don't give the name of the place I work (and hardly ever even mention what kind of place it is). When I complain about classwork I don't mention where I'm taking the classes.

Give us this middle ground. But if you insist on taking away our privacy do please be prepared for us to demand you have none for yourself. (And have to ask, Randi, you do realize when former (IIRC) Google CEO Eric Schmidt said something similar he found he put himself in the cross-hairs of people with too much time on their hands, right? You do remember what they did, in some cases using Google's on tools to find every scrap of information about him they could that was already in public and put together a dossier about him. And you do remember that he looked like a schmuck when he followed up his comments about how others should be quiet about wanting privacy with whining about people pointing out what was already in the public record about him?)

Comments

[http://beesbuzz.biz/fluffy/]

A lack of privacy is the luxury of someone who has nothing that could come back to hurt them. Not to mention the whole "real name == identity" thing being horribly simple-minded.

I suspect a lot of the people making these statements don't realize that their experiences and lifestyles aren't, you know, universal.

[meridian_rose]

I agree completely. What sort of world do these people live in, that think we have no need for privacy? A world with no stalkers, for sure. One where people aren't fired or harassed or beaten - or worse - when things like their sexual orientation or religious beliefs are made public.

And honestly, do these people have no interests they don't want in the public eye? No kinks they'd like to keep quiet about - I'm largely asexual and even I have kinks. No movies or music they love that they're a little ashamed to admit to being fans of? No hobbies that are even a little offbeat - it's one thing to say you love hiking but another to say you write porny fanfic or collect teacups or whatever?

Anonymity does lend people license to be the most vile and obnoxious excuses for human beings - the 'secret' type comms prove that, as do Youtube and Yahoo comments. But it's not always the case. It can also let people be who they are without fear of censure, backlash, or even physical harm.

And if Facebook wants to talk about accountability they need to start by doing a better job of preventing hate pages from being set up - often by people apparently using their own names.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fluffy/]

A lack of privacy is the luxury of someone who has nothing that could come back to hurt them. Not to mention the whole "real name == identity" thing being horribly simple-minded.

I suspect a lot of the people making these statements don't realize that their experiences and lifestyles aren't, you know, universal.

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

And as noted in the last paragraph in some cases it isn't even, "I have nothing to hide," but, "This is just for the little people, no one will dare dig into *my* past. What? They are?! How dare they!"

And yeah. "real name == identity" is rather simple.

Because names are in fact a complicated subject. Consider the Google employee who was going around posting comments on G+ trying to clarify the name policy -- who was using a single initial for his last name... Why? Because he doesn't actually have a 'last name' but so many systems (with Google and elsewhere) have fits if you don't enter anything for a last name so he has simple picked an initial that he uses whenever something asks for one.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fluffy/]

Yeah, I'm just glad that their name validator is ridiculously simplistic and allows a single '.' as a name. I waffle between being 'fluffy .' and '. fluffy' (I prefer 'fluffy .' because it makes it easier for people to + me but I prefer '. fluffy' because it looks like a FORTH expression).

[arrowwhiskers.livejournal.com]

That sort of thing makes me want to stop using Facebook entirely...if the executives can't understand privacy, they're not going to respect that of their users.