On Google+ and names

As posted to Google+ this morning


An open letter to Google, and specifically :

Hi, I'm Shira Frozenmoon. That's *not* my legal name but it is who I am.

Yep, that's right, I don't have a single government-issued shred of evidence to back up that statement. However, I've been using that name on the web since at least October 2004 (or was it 2003?), well before I even got an invite to Gmail in April 2005. It's who I identify as on every other site I've used within the last decade, including Twitter, Steam, and countless other sites. I've even had mail addressed to Shira when friends have sent Christmas cards or gifts. Of the 159 people who currently have me in their circles, fewer than ten would recognize my legal name.

Looking at Google Dashboard, you already have - through various services - more than six years of e-mail (27000+ messages), 16001 recorded web searches, 947 photos, and 347 voicemails. More importantly, you have my full legal name, my present and previous addresses, my birthday, my phone number, four credit cards, my job history, a GPS-accurate history of everywhere I've been for the last two years, and (for tax reasons with AdSense) my social security number. That's more information than any other institution has, including my bank and my employer. Why? Because, until now, I trusted Google's "don't be evil" policy.

In exchange for this mountain of data, I've simply asked for Google to keep it private. I honestly don't care if it's processed by various algorithms to customize my experience on Google sites, such as by ranking news stories, search results, or providing more interesting advertisements. I do, however, care to keep that information from being shown to the public. Your own help pages advise parents to tell their children to never use real names online. Why do you expect adults to ignore that very sage advice? I don't want the things I get up to on the Internet with friends to be easily and readily linked to my professional life. I want to freely be able to discuss things, including work and my sex life, that would not necessarily be things I want permanently linked to my name.

The name policy has me fuming because, up until Google+ launched, it was implicit that I could use whatever name I wanted without it ever being questioned. Even now, I would fully support a name policy that prohibits people from using offensive nonsense or impersonating others. However, that's as far as any such policy should go. Google - nor anyone - should dictate what people can and cannot be known by. Even now, I can still use the name Shira Frozenmoon within other sites without it becoming an issue. I could use that name to sign up for another e-mail service, another blog, or pretty much anything less significant than signing an apartment lease. So if it's not an issue there, why is it an issue here?
At one point I had nearly seventy active users in my circles, possibly as many as 80. I've forgotten, but just 45 of those accounts remain as of right now. *As a result of the name policy - and that policy alone - you have removed at least a third of my friends from a service that I'd like to use with them.* You have told a third of the people I know personally that they would have to sacrifice their privacy _and_ the names they're commonly known by if they wanted to continue using Google+. What's the point of remaining on a social networking site where nobody knows your name? Quite simply, there isn't one.

Of those users who have been removed, none will even consider publicly displaying their legal names. Of those who are still here, I know several who are considering deleting their accounts before they get suspended just to make a statement about who they are. I also know several people who have decided not to sign up for Google+ because of concerns that they won't have an account for long before their names, too, get them banned from the service.

So why, in light of all this, am I making a public post to say that I, too, am willfully ignoring the name policy? Because the policy is, quite simply, somewhere between absurd and unconscionable. It actually prevents me from feeling safe using the name I'm most commonly known by. It diminishes the value of your service by making it harder to find people by the name I know them. It infringes upon the basic human right to have anonymous (or pseudonymous) communication. Notably, it has nothing to do with advertising; you already have an enormous collection of data that could be shared with advertisers in a private way. There is no compelling argument to force people to use their legal names just to communicate with their friends on the Internet.

The name policy needs to change, and it needs to change quickly. This is not a fight Google should even be trying to win. Please, don't be evil.

Sincerely,

(Not) Shira Frozenmoon