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Google's CEO Warns Kids Will Have to Change Names to Escape "Cyber Past"

Google's Eric Schmidt says that people's private lives are so well documented now that the young will have to change their names when reaching adulthood to avoid their youthful indiscretions. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Schmidt says: "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time." A fresh start from the stupid things you did as a kid seems like a good thing. Now we just need a way to get rid of the dreaded family photo album.

17 of 706 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Either that by Smidge204 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    even killers get to move on when their sentences are done.

    Sex offenders... not so much.
    =Smidge=

  2. Re:Either that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Agreed. There's one great, big collective stick up our asses about kids being kids and doing stupid shit and/or just having fun. To hell with changing their names, how about the rest of us just grow the fuck up?

  3. Re:Your Favorite Youthful Indiscretion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I once bought an Alanis Morrisette album. (posted anonymously for obvious reasons)

  4. Re:Big Brother Is In The Building by easterberry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Except that in this case they aren't actually, you know, DOing anything. Evil or otherwise. He's talking about a problem that the internet as a whole creates and would be equally rampant with or without Google which Google has practically no effect on.

    It's not an article about Schmidt releasing some new antiprivacy system, it's just a point he's making that the internet makes your past easily accessible to everyone forever. Hell, it's more Facebook than Google who's responsible. But no. Feel free to shoot the messenger.

  5. Forward thinkers by travdaddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "the young will have to change their names when reaching adulthood to avoid their youthful indiscretions"

    OK guys, I have to admit, girls are WAY ahead of us on this one.

    --
    Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
  6. Re:Getting old by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All these stories that you hear about Google, and especially Schmidt, aren't anti-privacy stories. In fact, I would argue that they're more along the lines of honest warnings. Most of what he says echos what is common sense the the nerd community:

    "If you don't want people to know about something, don't post it online." How many times have we said nearly this exact same thing to our friends and family? I know I have, especially to my younger, less experienced relatives.

    "I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time." He's right, society doesn't understand and until people learn to look past minor indiscretions society never will. Until that time, the only way to have a fresh start is to give people a name that doesn't have all the past associated with it. He's not saying, "We're going to post all your data and theirs nothing you can do about it!", he's saying "the data is out there and we need to find ways to deal with it on a personal and on a societal level".

  7. Re:Either that by ovu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not to mention that emerging facial recognition features in photo sharing sites will render name changes an exercise in futility. Society's going to be forced to loosen up.

  8. Re:Either that by IgnoramusMaximus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sex offenders... not so much.

    You have to remember that in an insane society ruled by religious wackos whose mental disease revolves around fighting "sin" killing is a far, far, far, lesser crime than all things sex-related.

    You see killing is a forgivable sin (after all you can't have religious wars without killing and the "holy book" of the month is full of mass murder in the name of spreading the lunacy) but controlling sex resides deeply at the very core of the warped, hateful, controlling, jealous egos of the zealots.

    It is no coincidence that the ravings on the subject of "morality" coming from the Taliban officials and US "born again" politicos are so similar.

  9. What is new? by dov_0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think in the West we had a strange unnatural period where for the first time in human history there was enough individuality and wealth across the general populace that we could actually keep our lives private. This is not a luxury that most peoples and cultures of the world either have now or have ever really had. The only difference now is that instead of being recorded in the memories of all our the members of our community and anyone they happen to talk about it with, it is recorded electronically.

    --
    sudo mount --milk --sugar /cup/tea /mouth /etc/init.d/relax start
  10. Re:Either that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or Felons, You get popped for any small infraction, (It's amazing what is a felony these days.) and you are screwed for a very long time after your sentence is over, and for some things, forever.

    I did 8 months for firecrackers (That weren't actually illegal, but the lying feds convinced a jury that they were.) because I pissed of a sheriff who stood by and let some children die (Sheriff Stone of Columbine) and ten years later, I still can't get a decent job, and I will never again work in the two fields I'm best at. Computer Security and Firearms training. and in many states, can't even vote for change or reform, or ever hold public office. All because I stood up for what was right.

    So much for getting to move on...

  11. Re:Either that by tacarat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfortunately the label is occasionally applied too broadly and in ways that probably weren't intended. Even if the charges and label get cleared, the financial costs would be great and the damage to one's reputation may not be repairable. It's hard enough to find people that RTFA, much less the follow up stories.

    --
    "Common sense will be the death of us all"
  12. Alice's Restaurant by bsDaemon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reminded me:

    "Kids, this-piece-of-paper's-got-47-words-37-sentences-58-words-we-wanna-
    know-details-of-the-crime-time-of-the-crime-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-
    you-gotta-say-pertaining-to-and-about-the-crime-I-want-to-know-arresting-
    officer's-name-and-any-other-kind-of-thing-you-gotta-say", and talked for
    forty-five minutes and nobody understood a word that he said, but we had
    fun filling out the forms and playing with the pencils on the bench there,
    and I filled out the massacre with the four part harmony, and wrote it
    down there, just like it was, and everything was fine and I put down the
    pencil, and I turned over the piece of paper, and there, there on the
    other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on
    the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the
    following words:

    ("KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?")

    I went over to the sargent, said, "Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to
    ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm
    sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin here on the Group W bench
    'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women,
    kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug." He looked at me and
    said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send you fingerprints
    off to Washington."

  13. Re:Either that by Chibinium · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A society that has forgotten to forgive will hold a grudge against itself forever.

  14. Re:Either that by Randseed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah. The ones who actually knowingly committed a sex crime. Not those who went to a prostitute, urinated behind a tree in a park, got accused of something with no proof except some ten year old saying so, people named as rapists by some teenage girl who got caught by her father at a party she wasn't supposed to be at, naked and covered in two guys' semen, and made up the story to try and get out of trouble (true story), had sex with their 16 year old girlfriend when they were 18, had sex with some 16 year old in a club that she used fake ID to get into, and any of the rest of that crap. Unfortunately, with crap like 's Law it's just a profit-making, life-destroying industry that the government has created so that politicians can get votes.

  15. Re:Either that by Randseed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yep. A prominent pediatric neurosurgeon killed himself down here a number of years ago after he got in an argument with someone and they made a malicious report of child porn to the authorities. They searched his place and found nothing, but as a result his life was destroyed. His career was over. His family life was ruined.

    He hung himself in a closet.

  16. Re:Either that by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    usually demanded by sexually depraved individuals. The most anti-sex people are at their core highly perverted.

    Honestly EVERYTHING commanded by any religion about sex is only there to control the population.

    "God HATES you for masturbating..." What a fucking horrible thing to say to a child, yet it is said daily in almost every single house of worship across this planet. (I know there are some relatively less twisted religions out there, but they are not common). Humans by NATURE are sexual beings. It's by the warping of the human mind and abuse we make people afraid of sex or even hate sex. Sexual abuse, Emotional Abuse, plain old teaching kids lies, manipulation, etc....

    If ANY religion teaches hate, then it is not real, It's nothing but made up by man, designed only for the control others through shame and coercion.

    I'm certain I'll be modded into oblivion as I'm speaking out against religion. Disclaimer: I am a Christian, and I utterly despise the fear, uncertainty and doubt that other Christians preach.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  17. Re:Either that by HungryHobo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    different scales,

    "be murdered"
    vs
    "rape my children"

    It's normal for people to add weight to harm to their offspring vs harm to themselves.

    but if you want to compare crimes to make the scales make sense then use the same victims.

    So it should be

    "kill my children"
    vs
    "rape my children"