Your Name Is All Over the Internet. It Doesn’t Need to Be.
As more activity is linked to our real names, the stakes seem excessively high. There has to be a better way.
It should be harder than this to dig up dirt from a job applicant’s past.
Source: Education Images/UIG, via Getty ImagesIn the 1981 sci-fi novel “True Names,” Vernor Vinge describes a dystopian future in which hackers go to great lengths to keep their real-world identities secret for fear that the U.S. government might enslave or assassinate them. Almost four decades years later, it’s not lives that are at risk, but reputations and careers.
In recent months, we’ve seen multiple media personalities lose their jobs over controversial statements, along with one near miss. Elon Musk is facing SEC inquiries for his unchecked Twitter ramblings, and plenty of not-even-famous people have been fired for theirs. Given how efficiently the internet amplifies every indiscretion, it’s a bit reckless to anchor our accounts to a real-name identity.