I’ve spent the last 18 months of my life working to make our IT systems compliant with forthcoming data privacy laws, which means I’m a bit more sensitive to privacy issues than I used to be - and I’m a bit skeeved out by the unfortunate names of real people thread.
I think it’s fine to have fun with amusing names of people who are in the public eye already - politicians, actors, etc. What bothers me is the number posts where people are naming neighbours, friends, people they went to school with and the like. These people - whose names are unusual, by definition, and therefore easily identified - didn’t ask or consent to have their full names published on here. I note that the vast majority of posters use psuedonyms; I wonder how many people posting in that thread would be willing to put their own full name up instead of their doper name? If you’re not willing to post your own full name, you shouldn’t be posting anyone else’s either.
Some posters even linked to their subjects’ social media accounts, which I thought was a bit off, particularly in a thread dedicated to making fun of people’s names.
I’m aware I’m coming off as Captain Killjoy here, but in an age of online scamming and identify theft, I don’t think it’s right to post other people’s full names without their consent.
It didn’t find me, but then I’m not in the US - which might be a factor in this, since my understanding is that data protection laws in Europe (I’m in the UK) are generally stronger. If the SDMB was hosted in Europe (I know it isnt) and someone posted about their neighbour Ivor Bigcock, then Mr Bigcock would have the legal right to have his name deleted from the Dope, and there could be big fines if the Dope failed to comply. Likewise phone directories, White Pages etc.
But still, I’ve said my piece - I still think that posting people’s full names, on a public message board, is a bit of a dick move, especially when the purpose of the thread is essentially to take the piss out of their name, and I challenge anyone who thinks it’s OK to post their own full name in this thread.
So right now, you would say that their name “is full of piss”? And the posters in the thread are "taking the piss out of their name; aye? Did someone fill the name with piss, or is it inherent in the name?
Is it common to describe things as “full of piss”?
And why is it usually just “taking the piss” and not “taking the piss out of”?
Not really the same thing. The problem IMHO isn’t with publicizing real names per se, but with publicizing connections between real names and other information. It’s the difference between saying “There exists, somewhere, a person whose name is _____” and “The name of the person who said ____ or who did ____ is _____.”
That said, I still can’t decide in my own mind whether your main point is a good one or not.
Someone named ‘Ima Hogg’ has heard every joke and giggle. They would not be surprised to hear their name was being broadcast. It still isn’t right, though.
I don’t see any harm in mentioning people’s names. The name exists doesn’t identify anything. But linking the Facebook profiles is much grayer. I could see arguing that they chose to publicly reveal the information you see in their profile, and they shouldn’t include anything they’d want to keep private. But I can also see it as crossing the line into doxxing, which is against the rules here.
It would definitely be against the rules to in any way interact with these people, or try to get more info about them to share. And if you shared the information itself, I think that would cross the line.
Personally, I’d draw the line at linking to Facebook, except for celebrities and, of course, the poster themselves if they so choose to out themselves.
Correct me if I’m wrong (because I may be), but I thought even under the GDPR (the new European data protection regulations, imaginatively called the General Data Protection Regulation), someone’s (full) name is not personal data in itself. If it were, newspapers would need to get permission before publishing anyone’s full name, which is clearly ridiculous. The issue is publishing a full name alongside other personal info (e.g. date of birth, address, or even - perhaps - social media profile, though I’m not sure about that). I agree doing the latter is not right but just posting a humorous name seems harmless.
