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Comment by yanw | Hacker News Reader

Hogwash! it is not legally permitted to target advertising using real identities, ads are targeted at demographics, and a name has no value to ad targeting anyway, interests are what used for targeting ads not names.

There are many legitimate reasons to insist on real names within a social application, adding trustworthiness to sharing and trusting that you are communicating with the right person being among them.

Also it's in beta testing and a pseudonym option will be introduced: https://plus.google.com/111091089527727420853/posts/Fddn6rV8...

Edit: clarifying that ads aren't allowed to be targeted using real identity.

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> it is not legally permitted to target advertising using real identities,

[citation required]. As stated, this can't be right because my physical mailbox is chock full of real identity advertising - mostly related to credit cards but not only.

Real names are valuable in so far as they can be used to build gender (and possibly ethnicity?) models. I doubt this is the primary reason Google is insisting on real names, however. More like: Myspace allowed fake names and it failed. Facebook enforces real names and it has succeeded.

"clarifying that ads aren't allowed to be targeted using real identity."

Sooo... when I see ads using my name on Facebook its illegal?

I think if your statement is true there will in an opt-out clause when joining and they are just by-passing that law.

Also that Robert Scoble article is a joke, it seems more like emergency PR work than real content to me.

What about Groupon?

It's certainly legally permissible to target ads at individuals -- see, eg, retargeting.

Which has nothing to do with real names or identities.

Hmm, so Gmail showing you ads based on the email you're currently reading is unlawful? I think you have a weird (i.e., excessively narrow) definition of "target advertising to inviduals".

They are targeting you, yes. But "you" is loosely defined as someone who reads email newsletters about cat toys, not necessarily "John Smith, cat toy enthusiast".

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