Facebook Wants You To Snitch On Friends Not Using Their Real Name

Qedward writes "Freedom to go under a pseudonym is, miraculously, one freedom to survive the security lock-down of the previous decade. Now Facebook wants to change this. James Firth shows Facebook is clamping down on pseudonyms, with an interesting screenshot of being asked whether a friend is using their real name."

Comments

Everyone should post as Anonymous

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have comments you should post them as Anonymous... because we can.

Re:Everyone should post as Anonymous

[Sir_Sri]

I suggest it's sort of intellectually dishonest if you evaluate a posting in a certain way based on who posted it rather than what was posted.
Ideas should be evaluated based on their content rather than their source.

Depends. If someone on fox news claim that that they aren't in bed with the Romney campaign, or that Obama is in fact a kenyan muslim I know they're likely to be full of their usual shit. There's far more information in the world than I can reasonable parse through, so you have to pick your sources you trust and sources you don't, or you'll spend your life doing research and never actually getting things done. That doesn't mean I completely discount everything fox news said, but I'll leave it to someone else to actual check their facts - after all, it was the national enquirer that broke the Monika Lewinsky scandal correctly in detail (despite the vast majority of their material at the time being completely made up nonsense).

Also, posting everything purely anonymously makes it hard to verify you're continuing a conversation with the right person, which does happen in the comments here occasionally.

Re:Everyone should post as Anonymous

[Zemran]

I do not bother with ACs either but icebike hardly gives away your identity as Facebook is asking for. I would not give my real name on Facebook and I think that anyone that does is an idiot. I would not want some fanatic to be able to track me down after I comment about some crazy's over reaction to that anti-Mohammed film. I do not tend to write flame bait but I often speak my mind and there are people out there that will kill you for speaking your mind if it is not the same as their warped perception of the world. Do you really think that they cannot find you if you put all your real data on Facebook as Facebook wants?

This is not about AC vs. pseudonym, they want you to put genuine data on your account that will allow people to find the real you in person.

Someone please tell Facebook that

[Presto Vivace]

nobody ever won a war with their customers

Re:Someone please tell Facebook that

[joelwhitehouse]

Everyone seems to forget that we aren't the customers, we're the product. This is all about increasing the quality of their data for their real customers.

Exactly. Facebook has admitted that 80 million accounts are fake; now it needs to take steps to reassure customers that the eyeballs they've been selling are real.

Re:Someone please tell Facebook that

[dgatwood]

If, as they have said, their "entire platform is based on people using their real identities", then their entire platform is fundamentally flawed. No one should be forced to use their real identity for any purposes online, and the harder companies like Facebook try to force people to do so (and the more sites that use Facebook for authentication), the more backlash there will be against Facebook, and the more traction alternative services will get.

Re:Someone please tell Facebook that

[dgatwood]

Incidentally, none of Facebook's accounts are fake. They all represent an online identity. Whether those identities maps 1:1 to physical users or not is irrelevant. There are still actual humans using the accounts, viewing ads, contributing to the usefulness of the platform, etc. There is no legitimate reason for Facebook to be concerned about these accounts that do not center around fundamental invasions of personal privacy, such as correlating user behavior outside of Facebook with what they do and say inside of Facebook.

Re:Someone please tell Facebook that

[Stiletto]

In every transaction, there's a seller, a buyer, and a product.

If you're not getting any money and you're not losing any money, guess what you are...

Re:Someone please tell Facebook that

[Miamicanes]

No, "Hide extensions of known file types (Recommended)" was the first shot in Microsoft's war against its customers.

Re:Someone please tell Facebook that

[erp_consultant]

I think that Facebook is caught between a rock and a hard place here. If the fake accounts continue to exist (and if Facebook is admitting to 80 mil you can be sure the real number is much higher than that) then advertisers will continue to abandon the platform. But if Facebook continues to come out with policies like this then USERS will abandon the platform.

This is why I don't use Facebook. You start out posting a few innocent quotes and photos. Then maybe you add a questionable comment or two. Maybe a drunk college photo. Next thing you know it goes mainstream and HR drones start trolling profiles of prospective hires. Now you're got some explaining to do to someone you don't even know that probably has no business trolling your profile in the first place. But you've sold your soul to Facebook and now you can't get the toothpaste back in the tube. Those photos and comments live in infamy. All in the name of advertising dollars. Who reads those stupid ads anyway?

Please help us

[mtrachtenberg]

Please help us understand how people are using Facebook:

Is this your friend's real name?

Do you really like this friend?

Has this friend ever sent you any revealing pictures?

How much do you think this friend spends on entertainment? clothes? shoes? online services?

Please estimate the odds that this so-called friend might be a terrorist?

If you had to describe this friend to Facebook and the DHS, which of the following descriptions would you use: creative? avant-garde? obedient? disruptive?

Facebook appreciates your answers and respects your privacy. Thank you.

Re:Please help us

[Mashiki]

What kind of idiots are on Facebook anyway?

Well just remember those of us that are 'sane' and don't have an account, are apparently psychopaths now. So fuck'em. I'd rather be a psychopath, then I can get free room and board, along with happy-trip meds.

Re:Why stop at fake names?

[Anonymous Coward]

Rule #1 for my kids: never ever use real information. There's a time and place for it, but not on Facebook or other 'social' and gaming website.

Simple:

[BrokenHalo]

This line, buried in TFA (!) says enough:

That, ultimately, is what lies behind this kind of thing: Facebook wants to make money. If it knows exactly who you are, it thinks it can make more money from you.

This should be obvious enough, but sometimes the obvious needs pointing out:

Facebook can't make any money out of you if you don't use it.