Google CEO: In the Future, Kids Will Be Able to Change Their Names to Escape Online Mistakes

brb, doing some research on "Eric Schmidt."

You can already change your name legally. I suppose his idea is that it would be made easier. Though I would say that if this were to happen it should be at 25 not 18. College age people do a lot of idiotic things and don't start to calm down until the mid-20's.

Though most people continue to behave like fools all of their lives.

Great...make it easier for kids to ditch responsibilities.

A neat idea. I remember the drama that ensued years back when I had a Myspace, now I'm 20 and have a Facebook. I don't post anything on there that I'm ashamed of, and theres nothing that I wouldn't mind having follow me around in the future. But then again, myself and the rest of the THG crowd is/are still smarter than the average Joe.

"No, that must have been a different Jeff Henderson who posted that stupid video of himself when he was 12"

Problem solved.

You can change your name, but I'll still remember what your ass looks like.

Like its not going to be a big red flag to your employer that you have no record before the age of 18. What about applying for college? "Hmm... it seems the high school diploma you have is in someone else's name, so no, you can't attend." Even if you move the age to after college: "You want a job, but have no advanced degrees in your name, no thanks."

Of course, name changes are a matter of public record (occurring in public courts after all, at least here in the U.S.). So anyone who wanted to know would be able to find out (including employers, colleges, etc...). You won't be able to hide if someone really wants to know. Changing names isn't like going into witness protection.

Changing a name doesn't change your pictures... today we match data by names, tomorrow (and some tools do it today) the match is made through photos.
So, ok, I change my name, but I post a pic... oups... the link is made again...

So we come back to the initial status... don't publish anything to not be tracked.

Just go with an seperate hidden internet name from the beginning... problem solved... less hassle

And somewhere on some server in some place lies all the old info just waiting to get hacked...

Ummm, I never use my real name on the internet anyways. I have many aliases for Facebook and other sites that need a name. No one says you have to use your real name...

Who the hell cares what you did online as a kid.

No they won't, because in the future everybody will have their GUID (that's Global Unique Identifier, for the technically challenged) tattooed to their foreheads.

You will be a fool in the first place to give out to strangers (AKA the internet) your name, your pictures, your address, your wife's picture, and everything else. Facebook is for fools who want their lives to be ruined.

As someone who's moved 14 times during my grade school years, I can vouch for how refreshing it can be to not have anyone know who you are and what dumb things you've done in the past. Gives you a clean slate.

The stupid that comes out of this guy's mouth sometimes is baffling.

I wouldn´t worry much about this issue, because one thing is a stupid joke another thing is criminal record.

People tend to forget about stupid things we do when we were kids, that´s the age of being a moron.

Want a good example of today? Paris Hilton :S

I wouldn´t worry much about this issue, because one thing is a stupid joke another thing is criminal record.

People tend to forget about stupid things we do when we were kids, that´s the age of being a moron.

Want a good example of today? Paris Hilton

I have to agree with willgart and blurr91. Identification and searching based on picture is becoming more and more common. In the future, we will be doing both so a name change is pointless. Also, this just helps kids escape responsibility.

When I hire people, if an applicant has a different last name in the past, the applicant had to show proof that their name was changed (like marriage license or court name change, etc). Also, if you have a job or anything under your previous name, you will need to put your previous name down as well or else when your references or previous places of employment are contacted to verify your work history, the other companies/references will not know who you are (I have had this happen a few times). And not putting anything down will guarantee not getting a job. Also making it confusing for employer about what your name is, etc can hurt your chances of employment.

The name change will only help when the kids are into their careers and first jobs/college jobs are not needed anymore. But then again, 18 is too young because the most damaging stuff is when you are late teens and young twenties. Employers really don't care what you did when you were 11 (unless you are Jessi Slaughter then lord help you) but they do care what you did when you are in high school and college. I have personally denied countless applicants because of their facebook and myspace profiles.

Finally, anyone else think this will fool employers? The name change will show up in background checks and credit checks, both of which are very common. Also, employers will think it odd, like you have something embarrassing or dangerous to hide, if you randomly changed your name when you turned 18.

Sorry but how are they not allowed to change their names now?

How many ocho-cinco's do we need in the world?

@ jldevoy and VampyrByte:

Sadly people do care what you did as a kid. In this social network age anyone, and I mean anyone who wants to know who you are can find out everything that is posted about you. Say for example you are applying for your dream job and there is something posted by you or by someone else about you (and if you are on multiple social networks this has already happened regardless of how benign the post is) your employer will(many if not all) look at this info to get an idea of who you are. Now, if you are very carefull about what you show the world then you have nothing to worry about, but if you aren't carefull, I can guarantee you that anything that shows you to be untrustworthy or unreliable will lose your chance at the job. Apply this to any application you submit: school, loan application (car, credit, home), etc. and the results will be the same. I do not believe that you are so short sighted to believe that these people are not going to use that info to make a decision.

Now on to what this post is about. I do agree with many of you that things are changing, the future of privacy is unknown and will evolve as our access to information increases. However, I am coming to the conclusion that Eric Schmidt, regardless of how good of a businessman he is or how much good he is doing for his company, he should not be taken seriously in regards to privacy.

First; his only goal is to make sure that his company makes money. He doesn't care about us, he wants to increase profits and will do whatever he can to guarantee this. Unless you have a stake (fiscal or personal) in the company why are you defending them or him? If you believe in what they say, great! Support the ideas and goals, not the company cause they aren't paying you and will not pay you for your fervor.

Second: On how Eric Schmidt shouldn't be taken seriously in regards to privacy. A few months back Eric spoke to the media and said(this is not verbatim, this is done by memory, if you don't believe me look it up) the only people who want privacy are people who are doing bad things, if you aren't bad then you have nothing to worry about. Yet, when a journalist wrote a piece on Eric Schmidt using information that the journalist gathered through Google, Eric reacted as if the journalist and their publication had violated his privacy. Hmmm, that doesn't compute. If he truly believes that poeple do not need privacy, what was the problem? His actions speak for him in how he really feels about privacy and what his true goals are (re: First point)

Third and last point before I am banned from the forums. Without some radical changes to the laws regarding names and aliases, changing your name does not protect from what you did by your other name(s). Many applications require all known aliases that you have. If found that you witheld any info this can and probably will harm your chances with the group applied with. The use of changing your name is nullified when you provide all your aliases. In addition, which someone already pointed out but I want to emphasize is that facial recognition software is only getting better. If your photo is taken people can use your photo to find any and all websites that have your photo. In the end, changing your name doesn't help.

Thank you all for your time.

I think the real problem here is how people are allowed to do background checks on people in the first place.

denying someone a job because they got drunk when they was 21 and posted a pic of their ass on Myspace or facebook should not be allowed.

they should only be allowed to check to see you are how you say you are (SSN), check your references (diploma or degree), and under certin cercomstances a criminal back ground check (if you work with kids you cant be a sex offender, if you work at a bank you cant thief ect.) other than that companies should not be able to check you credit or anything else like that to obtain a job.

its just gone way to far that compaies are allowed to even dig that deep in to your back ground.

The then entire internet will be like 4-chan! =D

Fail....

Is it illegal to change your name now in the US?
Where I'm from, one can change his name after he's 18 with no problems.

Changing your name will do nothing. As others have pointed out a link will still be there to you and it will be mighty suspicious when people look at what should be your public past and see nothing.

plenty of creeps have "clean" background checks.