Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13
Real Name Social Networking Services and Risks
of Digital Identity
Can We Manage Our Digital Identity?
Yohko Orito
13.1
Introduction
The development and social penetration of Information Communication
Technologies (ICT) has been intergraded into various aspects of our lives. Nowa-
days many Internet users are enjoying the use of free web-based services such as
Social Networking Services (SNS), search engines, video access,
1
to name just a
few. The number of users continues to rise, and SNS which encourage users to
disclose their real names on their websites seem to have boosted their internet
presence even further.
It is alleged that 'real name' SNS enhances trust which leads to more frank and
clear communication among website users.
2
In fact, it seems that many users
consider inappropriate or impolite manners become the norm when the users do
not disclose their real name. Furthermore, many users may appreciate the conve-
nience of suggested friends or websites that occur when real name systems on the
SNS websites are utilized. These trends on such SNS have been receiving growing
attention on the web.
On the other hand, the social impacts of social media and SNS have been analysed
in various contexts (for example, gender issues (Asai
2009
,
2010
), and influence on
children (O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson
2011
). One example is the concern it raises
over information privacy. Because providers of SNS have conducted promotional
activities to collect personal information, many SNS users already have provided
huge amounts of personal information including personally identifiable information
1
The recently Megaupload debacle has had a huge impact on legal ramifications.
2
For example, the international manager of Facebook explained that Facebook enables the users to
construct a reliable relationship with other users using a real name system (see,
http://ascii.jp/elem/
