Many of us have done things in our teenage years that we might not particularly be proud of, but back then we believed it to be the funniest thing possible and uploaded it or spoke about it on various social networking websites. However, once working life starts, we would rather have our employers not find such material from our past. Already grappling with the privacy issues in the social networking world, here comes a rather bold suggestion from Google CEO, Eric Schmidt. In a recent interview with Wall Street Journal, he advocated that people who are concerned about their privacy online can change their name.
Eric Schmidt, the CEO of the company made the comments in a Wall Street Journal article about the implications of having so much data online. “I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time,” he told the paper. He predicted that “Every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites,” the report said. Last year too he made his sentiments clear on this very issue by stating baldly, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
According to certain reports, Google keeps the search records from individual computers for nine months; its Gmail programme looks at users’ emails to provide relevant adverts; and the StreetView mapping service has a picture of almost every house in the UK. The concern shown by certain consumer groups over Google’s growing power is finding some ground. Even the Conservative MP Robert Halfon later stated, “Google had crossed the boundaries between technological advancement and personal privacy.”
Google has been known for its innovation. They have lived up to their name by coming up with a rather amusing solution to the privacy issues faced by internet users worldwide. It would be interesting to see how Indian users respond to this issue considering the fact that India is ranked 4th globally in the number of internet users and it would have a whopping 500 million users by 2012.
Would you change your name for privacy?
