Giving your real name to Facebook – do not do it
I have no conspiracy theory for you. Just common sense. This would probably apply more to younger people, who are under social pressure to share stuff on Facebook.
Do not create Facebook account under your real name. It is very likely, that you are going to regret it – sooner or later. Facebook does not encourage privacy, to the contrary, they want you to share as much as possible with everyone. It is all the small print tactics. The privacy settings are there, but people do not bother with them.
Facebook is constantly changing the way it works and amends privacy settings. Do you really have time to study lenghty documents each time Facebook wants to introduce a change? Certainly not. But this is the only way to keep your privacy under control.
Facebook does not instill my particular trust or confidence. I am not sure, what they are going to do in future – with all the information about me they accumulate and changes they constantly introduce. Should some nasty changes occur, I want to be sure, that my privacy does not suffer. Only way to do this, is not using your real name when creating Facebook account.
If you already are on Facebook, put your name into Google search, probably along with the name of place where you live. It is very likely, that the search will show at least a couple of comments you made. Was it your intention to share those views with world? Certainly not. You expected them to be private. Congratulations, you have just found out they are public.
By all means, they can be made private. Removing your comments from Google, however, would be very difficult, sometimes impossible.
Facebook gives you full control over your privacy and the way you share stuff. The problem is, that to do it properly you have to dig through tons of privacy settings and policies, that, by default, are set to more or less public. When commenting, you have to watch who the item was shared with – friends, world etc.
You are bound to say publicly stuff, that was meant for close circle of friends. Even being very well informed Facebook user, you are going to slip here and there.
Instead of being constantly on guard, just give them a false name. Facebook is not a bank or institution. It is just a leisure site. There is no reason to trust it with your personal data. It is not a crime to lie to them, really. If you are creating new account, do not use your real name at least as long as you become aware of how Facebook works. Then you can change it.
As long your nick looks like an ordinary name, Facebook will leave you alone.
Ten years ago giving your real name to any website would be unthinkable. You simply do not give any data about yourself to the world, because you cannot predict how this world is going to use your information. Today, especially young people do not feel uneasy about sharing not only their personal data, but even very intimate details of their lives – with everyone.
It may be fun when you are in your teens. Later in your life those things can and will come back to haunt you. People do not understand, that the very moment they hit the share button, thy no longer are in control of the information. There is no “delete” button. Once shared, the information is public forever.
