YouTube and full names

[sophie]

...fantastic. YouTube are pushing for people to use their full name on YouTube, which shows up in place of their username. I just got a prompt suggesting I do that.

I've posted about this matter in the past, though this is slightly different, because at the moment (and hopefully this'll be the case always), YouTube aren't forcing people to use their real name. You can decide whether to use your full name on YouTube, or to continue using your username. (Though it should be said that YouTube ask you to justify continuing to use your username if you want to go that way, which really rubs me the wrong way.)

It is nice that they offer a choice, somewhat. But when I said that they're pushing it, I mean that the UI is such that you're fairly likely to go through with it if you don't read carefully. And as I say, the fact that you have to justify your reasons for continuing to use your username is just... eugh. It gives you a choice of 6 buttons IIRC, and one of them is a button saying "I'm not sure, I'll decide later", but that sounds like they still expect a justification later.

There's also a slight annoyance because it makes it harder to tell who's who for me, but that's basically protesting change because it's change, and I'm sure I can get used to it. I'm much more concerned about what I've written above.

What are your thoughts?

Comments

Re: Upset, but not surprised (or perhaps pleased?)

[sophie]

Your wallet name is a fairly easy way to track you across lots of places, which makes it easier to shove ads in your face.

Google can already track you across lots of places; they don't need a wallet name for that. In fact, advertising companies go to great lengths to be able to say that none of your data is personally identifiable to you, while at the same time getting as close to that line as is possible.

In other words, they know what sites you visit, who you talk to, what you order online, what times of day you're on, and plenty of other things - they just don't know your name. The thing is, they don't need to...

Re: Upset, but not surprised (or perhaps pleased?)

[alexwlchan]

Very true. But I think in Google’s mind, they do need to know this. (Whether Google’s mind reflects reality is another matter entirely.) So much of our data is flowing through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, where Google can’t index it. And more importantly, where they can’t push ads at you.

If you start sticking wallet names on everything, calling yourself a social network for relationships in the physical world becomes a much easier sell for a lot of people. And they will continue to do this because they can, and the vast majority of people don’t care enough to do anything about it. Win-win for Google.

Upsetting times.