Thoughts on Google's new privacy policy and terms of service which were recently announced?
Has anyone actually read it in its entirety?
Set to take effect on March 1st, Google's new privacy policy and terms of service contains the following passage:
"We may use the name you provide for your Google Profile across all of the services we offer that require a Google Account. In addition, we may replace past names associated with your Google Account so that you are represented consistently across all our services. If other users already have your email, or other information that identifies you, we may show them your publicly visible Google Profile information, such as your name and photo."
Does anyone else see this as a treacherous slippery slope?
Given the recent developments in the Google+ Real Names Policy, i.e., Google finally allowing pseudonyms - that is, if and only if members have a “meaningful following” online (can we say a.m.b.i.g.u.o.u.s?) or can otherwise verify their identity through newspaper articles or other official sources - is it safe to say that any group of musicians with a chosen name (this is, after all, the standard) may as well forget about having any sort of unified presence via Google?
That said, your band can have a 'page' on Google+ ( for example : jamesisaMonster Google+ page ). However, the page is associated with the individual who created it, and this is highly visible.
I have multiple online identities because I have multiple facets as a living, breathing, thinking human being. I dress differently when I go to work than when I'm on stage playing with a band; I carry myself a certain way depending on the social role I am currently acting out.
I teach adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder to adapt to different social settings by allowing specific situational expectations to inform behavior. The need for variance in expectations across manifold social arrangements arises out of necessity; the very structure of society is threatened when you start treating your boss like your house cat.
Google appears to be having a mid-life crisis (implying that Google does indeed have a finite lifespan). Google may appear too pervasive to fail, but let us not forget the now archetypal decline of Roman civilization.
Paradoxically, Google can be portrayed as playing both sides of the fence. Google wants us to be able to tell fart jokes to our college friends without our grandmother overhearing, yet wants an individual to maintain a unified image that is intended for all purposes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that frist piece what Circles are all about? Is that not Google's purported trump to all other social networking sites? Yet Google is now threatening to "show them your publicly visible Google Profile"?
Are we then forced to adopt the most innocuous and nondescript profile possible, only divulging details about ourselves in the ostensibly safe-for-now far reaches of the online identity venue? How soon will this slippery slope make even our private emails a matter of public record?
One must ask, what is Google's motivation behind this? Are they attempting to combat against cyber crime? Misleading identities? Online predators? Social accountability? Could an online predator not function in the exact same capacity with a single universal identity? If the aforementioned motivations are accurate, would Google not have to verify identities by some other means than those currently in place?
"ERROR 1298 - The SSN you entered is already in use by another member of the Google machine"
- jM
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