Tweet
Hi,
I consider it to be a privacy issue that vBulletin, by default, automatically uses a Facebook user's real name in place of their username at registration.
vBulletin already gives the user the choice of whether to import biography and location fields for example, so the user can choose themselves to share that information with the site or not (untick boxes). As a webmaster, vBulletin gives me a global on/off switch for these fields too so I can prevent users from being given import options, or allow some fields or none.
However a facebook user's use of real name by default is not an option the webmaster can override - they cannot stop this default behaviour. There is nothing more personally identifying than your real name - many (most) users do not want their real name on a forum. It's a fact that the vast majority of forum users do not use their real name on forums, period.
Many forums promote anonymity among their membership (such as those frequented by civil servants, doctors, nurses, mp's, etc) and do not want their public persona flouted around on a forum. I realise full well that the user can change this at registration but many people are skipping over this without realising it's a username field. From their point of view they have just hit a facebook connect button and they expect you to have their real name, so think nothing of it being there on the page.... they do not assume it will be their forum username... people just miss it, misinterpret it or often dont see it.
For many webmasters, this is going to lead to a huge headache - lots of users requesting their usernames be changed and additional (dormant) accounts caused by people re-registering to get a new username.... in short lots of extra work which could be avoided if this was not default behaviour.
I consider it to be a privacy issue that vBulletin, by default, automatically uses a Facebook user's real name in place of their username at registration.
vBulletin already gives the user the choice of whether to import biography and location fields for example, so the user can choose themselves to share that information with the site or not (untick boxes). As a webmaster, vBulletin gives me a global on/off switch for these fields too so I can prevent users from being given import options, or allow some fields or none.
However a facebook user's use of real name by default is not an option the webmaster can override - they cannot stop this default behaviour. There is nothing more personally identifying than your real name - many (most) users do not want their real name on a forum. It's a fact that the vast majority of forum users do not use their real name on forums, period.
Many forums promote anonymity among their membership (such as those frequented by civil servants, doctors, nurses, mp's, etc) and do not want their public persona flouted around on a forum. I realise full well that the user can change this at registration but many people are skipping over this without realising it's a username field. From their point of view they have just hit a facebook connect button and they expect you to have their real name, so think nothing of it being there on the page.... they do not assume it will be their forum username... people just miss it, misinterpret it or often dont see it.
For many webmasters, this is going to lead to a huge headache - lots of users requesting their usernames be changed and additional (dormant) accounts caused by people re-registering to get a new username.... in short lots of extra work which could be avoided if this was not default behaviour.
Comment