Annonymity

I was speaking figuratively rather than literally.

I had a similar experience. I had a band of merry fluffernuts that found out my real id and called my employment over and over again attempting to get me fired. All because they found out my politics weren't as conservative as theirs. I even began receiving emails from them telling me what color car I drove and asking if I was wearing panties when I drove my little car.

I was scared to death.

FYI, the police did nothing to them.

Now I don't even like to tell people what state I live in.

Ah sorry, Nish. I was just being silly.

It wasn't moronic at all. But it did sound a little bit like a conspiracy theory.

But ya know, sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be true!. So who knows eh?

Have you ever filed a tax return? Opened a bank account? Applied for credit? Rented an apartment? Bought a home? Registered a car? Taken out an insurance policy? Obtained a drivers license or a passport? Attended school?

You generated your very first public record the very day you were born. Paper trails are the foundation of modern society.

For shame, Brenda, you forgot about Michael.

Re: the convos regarding ppl messing with you in RL. Crap now I`m paranoid, luckily I havent run into any psycho incidents in RL yet.............yet.

Looks sourly at all the age verification stuff I am doing RL and moaned about copiously to Brenda in IM yesterday. Why does my SL always follow on from my RL work?!!

Personally I am not worried about identifying. We have to use Aristotle here too, as well as others. However, what I personally dislike it that traffic will plummet to interesting things rather than people will verify to use them.

That having been said, all the other "end of the road" issues haven't affected SL's online load so I doubt this will either.

WELL SAID

Sorry but there is undue paranoia in my never too humble opinion. I think so anyway. I know my friend is waiting on Robin's response re the UK Data Protection Act and this is something I personally am very interested to see.

I'd have thought that this measure could only legally be brought in where there is US jurisdiction but this is not an area I have expertise in, I could be very very wrong.

All the same ... each and every one of us has our lives documented. The last thing I worry about is that someone knows I play SL ...

Does anyone know yet what actual amount of this given information is going to be accessible to other SL users actually in game?
In other words what information will be displayed on the avatar profile if anything?
This is my main concern what will other SL users be able to find out about you and how well will we the SL user be protected?

I started this originaly as I thought the line:

…….We see this tool as critical to supporting Residents in shedding anonymity…..

from the blog a little curious, like we need support!!! It looks as if LL could with proof reading their own blog.

As with many on-line communities I believe the huge majority will elect to remain anonymous, that being one of the key elements. As for the fears about verifying status with a specialist in the field, just where is the problem? Get it into perspective, your cell phone tracks you, your cc tracks you, passport control tracks you, ubiqitous security cameras track you. Your basic identity is on record in countless places and in more depth than anything sl ask for. It's all about LL covering their backs, I would too, given the well publicised legal vultures that abound in the Real World.

You can be anonymous but if you want to enter a bar with pole dancers or visit a brothel - prove you are old enough. Not much to ask is it ?

i wouldnt be caught dead in a strip club or brothel in rl - can you tell fantasy from reality?

oh forgive me you werent even refering to rl . . you were talking about a video game and pixels . .

yes it is too much to ask

I am not too worried about a legitimate company having some way to verify my age, as i do not want under age people in SL what i am worried about is if any of this information will be accessable to other users in game at all, such as name, age, country, information used for verification etc

Ah, a voice of reason. I'm with you Rachel, but I don't think you need worry. The day that residents can't remain anonymous is tyhe day LL ceases to exist. Just imagine the field day the legal hounds will have should other residents be able to see any personal details without invitation. I can hear them sharpening quills already !

The blog seems to indicate that this will all be "voluntary" -- meaning that the user can choose what "verifications" to display to other users. The issue is whether social pressure inside SL will make this less "voluntary" as a practical matter.

The people who are happy to do whatever social pressure is going to push people towards, never see Social pressure as existing.

In fact many happily cuase or help the Social Pressure along without thinking about it.

They are like Lemmings.

LOL

All true. But these are necessary things in life, and giving out sensitive information is warranted. Doing it to play a game is not in my opinion. It is a small matter, yes, definitely not worth the hysteria it is causing, but i do think there are some valid concerns on both sides. For me it it's more a case of LL once again hatching another ill conceived, badly implemented plan that will possibly create more problems than it solves.

The blog entry from LL already answered this pretty clearly: You can CHOOSE whether to display certain information, such as your town, age range, etc. You can also choose not to, but if you do, people who see it will know it's been verified and therefore accurate.

Nothing else will be accessible to other users. Your personal financial info, etc., is just for internal use to verify that you are who you say you are and never part of your user profile.

The concern some people have about the security of their personal information such as SSN is reasonable, I think, but nothing LL has said has ever suggested that anybody will be required to display anything publicly. Even people who age-verify will only have a code showing they have verified, nothing to indicate whether they're 19 or 49.

(Not related to what you said, but it occurs to me ... the people who are worried about the SL sex industry because voice/verification/whatever might reveal some gorgeous women are actually men ... on the other hand, those that are women can have that fact verified and displayed. I wonder how many will.)

I've read alot of those posts about this and even responded to a bunch. I have to say I do agree that there is a warrant, to some degree, to cause general concern. BUT, only because alot is not so much common knowledge. I understand that some of you really would rather not have your age, location, w/e plastered over SL for anyone to see. With the same token, anyone with even a slight bit of knowledge and their own website can pretty much find out anything about you. To the extent of your location with a nice little satelite image of your location within your town. Personally, I would rather not discuss how this could be done cause I would rather not have the virtual finger pointed at me lol.

It is a toss up however. Do you verify yourself so that you can continue to access all the options you currently do within SL? Do you say screw it and just ignore it? Do you up and quit? (and let me tell you I find this hilarious cause I have lost count with the people that troll the forums just to say thats it I quit and have said that with the last 10 "drama" patches sl has done). All in all they say the choice is yours, but to truely enjoy SL to its full potential you really have no choice now do you?

Am I concerned about verifying? No, as a matter of fact I already did it. Ironically because I moved within the last 18 months it actually took my old address. So even if someone got the information they would be showing up at my old apartment. Which i'm sure the new residents wouldn't be too thrilled about. Was I concerned about the fact that I input my last 4 numbers of my SSN? No, tbh there is no way to protect yourself from getting your identity stolen. BUT, if your smart and check your credit report frequently and keep an eye on your "current" and "previous" address's. Or hell I have even had some of my old addresses removed from my credit report as to make it that much harder to get anything sent to any other address other then my current one.

Only way to be safe is to be smart. There is a TON of places that ask for your last 4 numbers to your SSN. As far as the members that are in different countries. TBH I have no freaking clue what a SIN or all that stuff is as the closest to leaving the country i've ever really done is going to italy when i was younger to visit family and the bahamas. So I really can't say that I know the differences between the USA's form of tracking people and other countries.

All in all, what its gonna come down to is probably a 50/50 split. 50% of SL will verify and 50% won't. But I would put money down that at least 90% of concierge members will verify just to cover their own asses. LL is covering their ass, which you really can't blame them for. Its a smart move. BUT, the choice in how they did it and are doing it, well thats a whole other ball of wax.

If LL are ever foolish enough to post the personal information they obtain as part of the profile, then after the resulting class action lawsuit, Second Life WILL belong to the users!

I remember from Lineage II how some guy pressed a woman to send him a picture. She refused for the longest time.... but after time she gave in. She did send a picture... It turned out she was not the sweet looking light elf... but what most guys would call "ugly". She was dumped as a piece of stone.

Lenamarie is still a close friend to me.... although we now only talk on MSN (I left Lineage many months ago). But we still giggle as young teenage girls and make silly jokes. She has a lot of inner beauty.

Morwen.

Yeah, Morwen. It's a problem. People can grow fond of eachother online and it then becomes natural to want learn more about your virtual friend. I feel sorry for the both the guy and Lenamarie.

I've learnt to not allow myself to get too friendly with anonymous people. But I admit, I've made a few mistakes in the past.

Live and learn!

2k it seems like your missing something in your comments.

Why is it that people are either anonymous people or arent?

Plenty of people might be willing to be less anonymous with the right person - but not want the whole frikken Second Life World to know about their RL.

I show my picture to people I know well, Brenda knows my RL name , etc. But I wouldnt show/tell someone I dont care about. None of their damn business.

Damn right!. I totally agree. It's none of their business!!