Nothing really original in this post, folks. So if you’re bored of the discussion of what is identity, move along. I don’t know where I stand on this issue anymore. I WAS very firmly decided that there was no need to link my SL and my RL names overtly. My feeling is that there is NO privacy on the internet. If someone wants to find out all your personal information, they’re going to find it. Most people aren’t interested and won’t look, so I’ve operated under the policy of why make it simple to connect if I prefer separation.
But Google+ may be the tipping point for me. I WAS very excited about using Google+, mostly because I have developed an incredibly strong aversion to Facebook. I’m in FB under my U.S. Tax Form 1040 identity. I’m HERE under my SL identity. I’m in Google under my SL identity. I think I use my Ahuva identity more places than I use my 1040 identity.
This morning I saw in Plurk that Google is banning accounts that are not “real” names. I’m really really tired of this. Ahuva is real. I am Ahuva. Ahuva is me. Basically everyone who knows me by my 1040 identity knows Ahuva, or knows of Ahuva. There are people in my 1040 world who call me Ahuva, NOT my birth name. So what would be so terrible if I caved-in to this never ending pressure to “out” Ahuva and link her to a 1040 identity? I’m trying to think if Ahuva has done or said or been anything that would embarrass or harm good old 1040. The answer to that, of course, is that the 1040 world already KNOWS Ahuva. I’m not sure why I have to be forced to let the Ahuva world know about 1040.
I resent this a lot. I don’t see why this is necessary. I do not accept the arguments and reasons put forth by Google, Facebook and whoever else. But I don’t have time or energy to keep running around maintaining dual identities and trying to “beat their game” if I want to use a product. I believe that they are wrong, wrong, WRONG in their approach. If someone wants to do business with me, they will be able to determine who and what I am. They will not need Google or FB to “protect” them from me. If a person is so foolish as to trust blindly any person posting on the internet, well, perhaps I’m cruel and cold, but Caveat Emptor. Wake up, kid – if you’re a victim, perhaps you are to blame. And Big Brother – stop trying to tell me who I am.
Ahuva's Blog 
Great minds etc., 🙂 I’d like to see somebody tell Honour she doesn’t exist. And she doesn’t even have your fabulous hair!
We know it’s all about money and data mining, so why give in to it.
Sod ’em I say.
@Soror – yes, exactly. Honour and I were discussing this earlier and said the same thing: data mining. All of these social networks are selling our information. The networks themselves don’t care if the profile is an avatar name. But for some reason the folk to whom they sell the information have not grasped that avatars ARE real people who spend real money and whose web browsing and buying patterns can be tracked. So track the avatar name and market to that – it will still be successful. Thanks for commenting!
Ahuva: this is the question that begs an answer, and people will write this off as “tin-foil hatting” but seriously: if they can track Miso, they know what I like. The same eyeballs see what Miso sees; the same wallet buys what Miso buys. To their own stated reasons, they have an effective sales profile for targeting me with ads.
So my question begins to sound more important: if they have the marketing data they need, why exactly does this all need to link up together in a tidy package with a government-issued name/number? If more people know Miso than my 1040 name, who needs my 1040 name?
Putting my cards down, I believe this is nothing more than an end run around regulations keeping banks and governments restricted in their abilities to pry into every corner of my life.