Friday, August 5, 2011

Using pseudonyms online

The buzz about Google+ deleting accounts using fake names raises another question. Why do people wish to remain anonymous online. There can be a variety of reasons. Off the top of my head, someone who is a public figure like a teacher, police officer or public administrator might want to remain anonymous for security reasons. danah boyd has an interesting blog post on the subject.
Speaking of Google+'s policy of suspending suspicious names, you will interested to find out that many of the names are legitimate. Sounds like Google needs to rethink this policy or else Google+ will dry up just like Google Wave. Check out this informal survey.

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