No Pseudonyms Allowed: Is Google Plus's Real Name Policy a Good Idea? Tying your real name to your online identity was one of the key differentiators that set Facebook apart early on from other online sites. Facebook (and others) argue that a real name policy helps keep bad behavior online in check by linking online actions to offline identities and relationships. But there are plenty of people who are less than convinced that real names make a website “safe.”
As political activists and dissidents have increasingly turned to social networks in order to build their communities and spread their messages, many have balked at Facebook’s policy that requires people use their real names in their profiles, arguing that doing so puts them and their families at risk. It isn’t just activists, however, who argue that pseudonymity may be necessary. Some have been surprised and disappointed then to see that Google’s new social network, Google Plus, much like its rival Facebook, will also require real names. Updated: Watson contacted me with this clarification. Google+ demands your real name: Pseudonyms suspended. Google+ users who refuse to list their real names on the social network could see their accounts suspended, as the company pushes to relegate pseudonyms. Katie Watson, Senior Manager of Global Communications & Public Affairs at Google, told New World Notes that the search giant is "working with people to change their profile to include their real name, and then use their 'avatar-based name' in the field that asks for other names" so as to restore profiles that have already been frozen, after some Google+ sign-ups chose to use online nicknames rather than their full name.
Google+'s profile system allows for a single real name, and then several "other names" along with a nickname. That allows searchers to locate friends they may know from usernames on online gaming services, Twitter or other platforms. "Google Profiles are designed to be public pages on the web, which are used to help connect and find real people in the real world. Follow-up: Google confirms “real” names a requirement for Profiles/Plus … mostly. Last week, there was an apparent contradiction in Google’s recently published policy in the use of pseudonyms for Google products versus its actual practice. After obtaining additional clarification, that contradiction has gotten far more pronounced. That is, you must use the name in your wallet as opposed to any other for Google Profiles and Google Plus … except where Google decides for some reason that you don’t have to.
If you’re just after the short version, based on enquiries with a Google spokesperson it boils down to this: Google staff apparently guess whether a name on a Google profile is the name you “go by in daily life”, suspend the profile (and your associated Google Plus account) if they don’t think it is and then require you to somehow prove that that is what people routinely call you. There apparently isn’t any standard of proof available, other than sending them links to LinkedIn profiles or scans of photo ID. Google+: your real identity or there’s the door! Google+ users who don’t enter their real names may have their accounts suspended. Facebook has a similar policy so as to create interactions between their users. The social network with 750 million members justifies this choice on security grounds, with the use of a real identity offering better protection against inappropriate actions.
In Facebook’s conditions of use, you can read: "Facebook users need to give their real name and information, and we request you help us keep it this way". In reality, Facebook is rather laxidasical on this point, and creating a fake account is actually very simple. Most users may not have any need to open a fake account, but some prefer to have a different online personality to keep a clear boundary between their real and virtual identities. Currently in testing (invitations) by more than 10 million users (unofficial estimates), Google’s competing network could take a harsher line on enforcing real user identities. Google Confirms: Non-Real Name Google Profiles Risk Suspension (I.E., Google Still Doesn’t Get Social) UPDATE, 7/12, 2:45PM: The story continues in this post here. If you created a Google Profile named after your avatar or another pseudonymous name, your account risks suspension.
Instead, you should consider creating a Google Profile which is based on your real name, and if you like, add your avatar name and other non-real names in the About section of your profile. To do that, click “Edit Profile” and enter those names in the designated fields, as pictured at right from my own profile, which has my SL avatar name, “Hamlet Au”, along with variations of account names I use in other gaming/virtual world/social media settings. My advice comes after a long e-mail conversation I recently completed with Google spokesperson Katie Watson, Senior Manager of Global Communications & Public Affairs at the Internet giant. For the last couple years, it’s been a mantra in Silicon Valley that “Google doesn’t get social.” Read my full, lightly edited e-mail conversation with Google’s Ms. Google+ Says 'Use Your Real Name Or You're Out'