Real ID over the internet is for suicidals

There is a reason why you do not have a tag with our name on your chest when you walk around. There is a reason why you hate telemarketers for having your name and last name. There's also a reason why you don't give your home or cellphone number to everyone. It's called privacy and it shouldn't be questionable at all. Unfortunately there are some who think otherwise and sometimes they sound like they spent too much time in the Sun. 

Google CEO Eric Schmidt talked on August 4th at Lake Tahoe Techonomy conference about the current status of the internet and its future. At one point he stated:

"The only way to manage this is true transparency and no anonymity. In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it."

The need for a verified ID over the internet is just a bad idea and everyone knows why. Having your name and face available to the whole world is something that will have more side effects than positive ones. Here's a small list why it's a bad ides:

1. business will collect all your infos sending you more unwanted advertisement that most likely will be tailor-made for you through email, cellphone, snail mail, telephone, fax, gaming console, etc.
2. telemarketers will have a field trip knowing where you live and when to call you according to your work schedule;
3. door-to-door salesmen will return in grand style knocking at your door as soon as you get back from work.
4. divorcing parents are do not end their relationship in nice way. Crazy mom or dad might want to kidnap Junior;
5. religious solicitors doing the same job as telemarketers and door-to-door salesmen;
6. unwanted and not-well-intentioned people.

The list can go on and on, but I think you understood where it's headed. But there is a great example of personal information that went online that happened not too long ago. In the World Of Warcraft forum a post by an administrator stated that the company planned to implement Real ID for players, as part of the Blizzard's Battlenet strategy. What followed is that the real information of this administrator popped in the forum and soon enough his whole life was available to anyone: name, last name, girlfriend name, Facebook profile and a blog about his upcoming wedding with further details o family and friends.

The forum drama went on for hundreds of pages having people disgusted and shocked by this decision and eventually Blizzard dropped the project. This shows us how some corporate strategies are bad from the start because they do not reflect what costumers want.

Transparency is one thing, but not when we are talking about the real life of people who can have their life in jeopardy by silly strategies that will only work on paper. There are already ways to be identified on the internet, for example when you do online purchasing your credit card and address informations are already stored and I think it's enough. We don't want to give more than that to people who we don't know or we barely trust.

Giving up privacy over the internet is like having no walls in your bathroom. There is a limit to when and what your name should be available, the rest is none of your business.