Editing 1303: Profile Info
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The title text references the fact that most of these companies have an "opt out" option so that your name won't be used, but then emphasizes that {{w|YouTube}} (a subsidiary of {{w|Google}}) at the time of this comic forced YouTube user accounts to be tied to {{w|Google+}}. Google+ required the use of the 'first name' and 'last name' convention typical of western cultures, where one cannot 'opt out' (though these requirements did allow for the abbreviation of names). However, this has not stopped people from using names that aren't their own, but using names like "Barack Obama" and "Chuck Norris". Some similar websites allowed the use of aliases in their initial terms of use, but then later changed their TOCs to prohibit use of "false" names. YouTube was one such system; after the merge with Google+ for authentication, both sites automatically linked your false-name account with your real name account, in some cases banning and blocking people with suspected false name accounts. | The title text references the fact that most of these companies have an "opt out" option so that your name won't be used, but then emphasizes that {{w|YouTube}} (a subsidiary of {{w|Google}}) at the time of this comic forced YouTube user accounts to be tied to {{w|Google+}}. Google+ required the use of the 'first name' and 'last name' convention typical of western cultures, where one cannot 'opt out' (though these requirements did allow for the abbreviation of names). However, this has not stopped people from using names that aren't their own, but using names like "Barack Obama" and "Chuck Norris". Some similar websites allowed the use of aliases in their initial terms of use, but then later changed their TOCs to prohibit use of "false" names. YouTube was one such system; after the merge with Google+ for authentication, both sites automatically linked your false-name account with your real name account, in some cases banning and blocking people with suspected false name accounts. | ||
| β | To try to put a stop to his own information being used, [[Cueball]] sets his last name to "If-you-see-this-name-in-an-ad-give-the-product-a-one-star-review-Smith", a name which includes a phrase that would negatively affect any marketer's attempts to advertise an online product | + | To try to put a stop to his own information being used, [[Cueball]] sets his last name to "If-you-see-this-name-in-an-ad-give-the-product-a-one-star-review-Smith", a name which includes a phrase that would negatively affect any marketer's attempts to advertise an online product{{Citation needed}}. This name would pass though most harvesting software as-is, and may very well end up being used in such ads, unless some very clever software is able to detect sentences as part of names or similar. In fact much spam is stopped by identifying emails through {{w|Honeypot (computing)|Honeypot}} accounts, among other methods. |
Hence engineering part of your profile could be a winning strategy to signal to your friends that your information is harvested without your express knowledge. | Hence engineering part of your profile could be a winning strategy to signal to your friends that your information is harvested without your express knowledge. | ||
