14 DAY TRIAL // Faced with strong criticism after suspending without warning the Google+ accounts of people who didn't use their real names, Google promised to notify offenders in advance from now on.
A few days ago Google began enforcing its common name policy which states that all users need to use their real names on the service. A large number of people woke up with their accounts suspended without having a chance to correct the problem.
"We’ve noticed that many violations of the Google+ common name policy were in fact well-intentioned and inadvertent and for these users our process can be frustrating and disappointing. So we’re currently making a number of improvements to this process," said Google's Bradley Horowitz.
According to him, these changes include "giving these users a warning and a chance to correct their name in advance of any suspension" with the note that this doesn't apply to spammers and other abusers.
That's a welcomed change for sure, but it doesn't satisfy the expectations of digital rights activists or security experts who believe the network should offer stronger anonymity.
"By requiring people to only use their real names, unless they just happen to be a celebrity, they have eliminated the ability for people to be private in any meaningful way," says Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor at Sophos.
"Google suggests your pseudonyms could go in the optional Nicknames field, which you can choose to make searchable and public. This solves Google's problem, but erodes privacy even further by associating your 'real' name with your pseudonym. I believe this is actually destructive to privacy, not helpful," he adds.
One category of people who really need this sort of privacy and anonymity on social networks are political activists from countries with oppressive governments. By expressing their dissenting views they risk long years in prison and torture.
Back in January, during the Tunisian revolution, the Electronic Frontier Foundation urged Facebook to "consider allowing pseudononymous accounts for users in authoritarian regimes, where political speech under your real name is dangerous and potentially deadly."
"Many Tunisian activists are unable to reinstate Facebook accounts that have been erased by the Tunisian government because they were not using their real names," the digital rights watchdog said at the time. The same problem now extends to Google+.