Checking in

[cleolinda]

So, a few things--mostly Twilight-related, now that I think about it. Sorry in advance for that.

I'm still working on the Eclipse thing (eh, we can speak of it. We've all known for months, if not since November 2008, that I would be doing it). For some reason, I pretty much had a mild nervous breakdown trying to do the New Moon one, and for some

Comments

[khaman]

I don't know how much nerd!fail you're interested in following, but ontd_political and wow_ladies, along with, oh, the WSJ and MSNBC are following an implosion of common sense in the online gaming world.

I mean, even fandom_wank is against this. Fandom_wank!

Even if someone's not a gamer, it's interesting to follow this as it evolves, as it may be a part of the fall of anonymity on the internet in general.

[cleolinda]

Oh! Is this the Blizzard thing?

[khaman]

Yes, it is.

What hasn't gotten picked up as widely is that there are already found and known security holes in the RealID service that Blizzard is touting, where addons (these are pieces of optional software used in the game; while naturally there needs to be caution about this, these are accidental side effects from popular and safe addons, afaik) are picking up and broadcasting your name to people that you have not opted to give your name to.

[cleolinda]

Yeah, I wanted to mention that (and forgot). There's a screencap on FW of a guy saying something to the effect of, "Oh, good, if they do this, I can look up that girl with the hot voice and track her down IRL." I mean, yes, the rest of the board recoils in horror, but it's Exhibit A as to why this is a BAD IDEA.

And, you know, also the security holes on top of that.

[khaman]

Exactly that; yeah, I saw the same 4chan cap over on Fark and linked to at the wow_ladies blog.

There was also a pair early on in a blizzard forum where one player said 'here's my name, IDC, I'm hard to find, good luck.' Someone else found him and called him at work in twenty minutes. That's at this link...

http://seewhatyoudidthere.com/2010/07/07/realid-changes-the-very-real-ease-of-stalking-in-the-internet-age/

(there is no serious personal information or how-tos on that page; I'm not gonna contribute to the issue)

[cleolinda]

Yeah--I was wading through all the many FW comments and saw at least one case of that, maybe two. (And in one of them, they harassed a same name/wrong guy first.) I don't want anyone to be harassed, but at the same time, it's such a wonderful PWNED! kind of moment.

I just don't get this at all. The Facebook people do this, the Google Buzz people--it's like NO ONE has any concept of internet safety. Are there no women working at these companies AT ALL?

[khaman]

I just tested it myself. A very recent poster on the forums gave her name and said 'lol, it's common.'

Using her character name and her real name, I can tell you several of her hobbies and identify which 'commonly named' facebook account is hers.

I am not an information specialist or a wacko. IT TOOK ME A MINUTE AND A HALF.

No, they don't get it. At all. But I think the stockholders at Activision are starting to get it, based on some commentary at the WSJ blog.

[cleolinda]

GOOD. Because what I read was that the guys (literally, guys) at Google and Facebook have a corporate culture of one part "It's awesome to sell people's info for profit," one part "We did it because we could, isn't it awesome that we thought of this?," and one part "What? There are things you don't want other people to know about your lives? Professional geekery is all we have in ours, we don't understand that concept." And the allure of profit is so strong, particularly, that other businesses are just counting on people to be complacent enough to just let the very concept of privacy slowly erode away.

The problem with this is--I'm sure a lot of people are willing to let it dwindle away. It's not good in the long run, but it doesn't really affect them right now. But it DOES affect a lot of other people in a very urgent way: their immediate safety. And either these corporations don't think about that, don't care, or are counting on there not being enough of those people raising a fuss.

[cmdr_zoom]

Yes, all of this. Insightful and well said.

I think we're all going to miss privacy. Some of us already are.

[cleolinda]

Yeah.

One of the thing that infuriates me is that the people who seem least able to understand why this is a problem--I'm generalizing here, but certainly using the WOW boards there as evidence--are almost always guys. And it's like, dudes, of course you don't understand; very few of you have ever had to worry about internet safety. (Although they should start to, given that story of the guy who was tracked down and stabbed by a vengeful fellow player on whatever game it was.) Look at that guy they screencapped, the one who's like, "Oh, sweet, now I can hunt down that girl with the hot voice IRL." Now imagine that the girl with the hot voice is your girlfriend or sister. How do you feel about it now?

[fiveforsilver]

I don't play those games, but I have a very not-common name. In fact, it is totally unique, and stories like this continually freak me out. Some guy on a forum I used posted a "why don't people use their real names instead of "silly" made-up usernames?" question (I forget his name, but it was approximately as unique as Mark Jones) and I was just like, I can't even tell you how STUPID IT WOULD BE for me to broadcast my name all over the internet. I have spent the past 20 years deliberately not doing that.

[crowsilike]

It's the same for me - uncommon last AND first name, meaning there's basically only me with this combination. I had to completely stop using a screen name because I had connected it with my RL first one and had people who wouldn't leave me alone.

[fiveforsilver]

Oh yeah, my first and last name are both uncommon, I know it's just me because I'm related to everyone with my last name! I am also easing away from a username that has been connected with my real name, not because anything bad has happened, but because I would like to have some modicum of internet anonymity.

[crowsilike]

And people wonder why I refuse to use Facebook... My first and last names by themselves are uncommon. Together? As far as I know there's only me with that specific combination. Hence why I use a completely different name.

[crukina]

If you go to howmanyofme.com you can find out how many people in the USA have your exact name.

I'm one of six people in the USA with my name (apparently), so I get the paranoia.

[crowsilike]

I'm Swedish, so it's not that useful to me... still, it helps prove my point since only about 43'000 share my first name.