Young will have to change names to escape 'cyber past' warns Google's Eric Schmidt

[jalaffa]

The private lives of young people are now so well documented on the internet that many will have to change their names on reaching adulthood, Google’s CEO has claimed.

Eric Schmidt suggested that young people should be entitled to change their identity to escape their misspent youth, which is now recorded in excruciating detail on social networking sites such as Facebook.

"I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal.

In an interview Mr Schmidt said he believed that every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrasssing photographs and material stored on their friends' social media sites.

The 55-year-old also predicted that in the future, Google will know so much about its users that the search engine will be able to help them plan their lives.

Using profiles of it customers and tracking their locations through their smart phones, it will be able to provide live updates on their surroundings and inform them of tasks they need to do.

"We're trying to figure out what the future of search is," Mr Schmidt said. “One idea is that more and more searches are done on your behalf without you needing to type.

"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."

He suggested, as an example, that because Google would know “roughly who you are, roughly what you care about, roughly who your friends are”, it could remind users what groceries they needed to buy when passing a shop.

The comments are not the first time Mr Schmidt has courted controversy over the wealth of personal information people reveal on the internet. Last year, he notoriously remarked: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Earlier this year, Google was condemned by the privacy watchdogs of 10 countries for showing a “disappointing disregard” for safeguarding private information of its users.

In a letter to Mr Schmidt, Britain's Information Commissioner Chris Graham joined his counterparts in countries including Canada, France, Germany and Italy, in raising concerns over its Street View and Buzz social networking services.

View: Original Article

[jalaffa]

Doing a search for my real name did link me to an Amiga site. I can live with that :)

[LeetPirate]

I think it's really focussing on people who are bullied and embarrassed to a point where they might want to kill themselves or something. People do this already, they move, change names, etc.

[HX1]

Yeah.. I mean asking the globe as a whole to develop themselves socially, interpersonally, and psychologically would be way out of the question..

.. and well for those who are posting about things they don't want people to know about then I guess.. it would be part of this redundant cyclic clusterf@ck.. in which some repetitively do these things and then blame the information source itself... or something else..BUT hey.. maybe they can track what they are actually doing now.. WITH GOOGLE...

Who am I to state it? :blink:

Then of course, we have subscribers to the tabloid-ist type of material that they live to type through their blackberries until their fingers bleed because it give their brain something intrinsically simple to focus on due to this lack of development... and outlets for the obsessive compulsive to fullfill themselves ( like Twitter and faster CC transactions )..Dunno.. why all of a sudden am I spilling and regurgitating info.. and ideals?

...dunno.. blue-haired old ladies full of caffeine... and introverted knowledge of an understanding of life, traumatized to dumbfounded stupidity and dissociative schizophrenia ...and the puss-gutted windbags which are driven into this realm by even a lack of physical health which causes problems in their physical and mental performance.. its just SOOO country.. ( Imean we havethis effect even without it.. why exploit an issue ).. ongoing regressive of what we all hope for tomorrow I think regardless of our stake in it.. Everywhere you are, this is a problem because of the fallibleness of the human animal and the ongoing fight for survival against the effects of said epic failures... BEFORE it happens ( which evades the grasp of understanding ) not after.. Then we are like ' Wow.. how did that happen... ' Like the curious creatures we are.. ( or half-wits and f^cktards .. depends on where you want to coin the term ) All in an effort to escape what we are, but yet seemingly helpless to improve...

Maybe we could do away with all of the curiosity, learning, diversity, and just allow a search engine and a smart-phone tell us when its time to wipe our own a$$es... Who to be, because it is statistically stated as such.. Who to marry.. who to date... because your told to.. not because yo understand why..

Technology can be an extension to greater empowerment.. to aid in the tools we have to able to go beyond what we are.. or can achieve.. To organize and minimize.. a place to go to be more efficient...BUT allowing it to become our handicap in development.. thats an issue... To aid in such a handicap would even be questionable...

^_^ I think it odd sometimes what people are thinking.. in their opinions.. but then I remember thats this is one of my own as well.. Then sometimes I wonder if the measure of the human race itself is if not but all of the level of its failures..

Honestly.. I think its that time of year.. seems to be at ridiculous levels..