> There's a very simple business reason why Google cares if they have your real name. It means it's possible to cross-relate your account with your buying behavior with their partners.
The idea that google somehow wants track your behavior through your name is laughable. Do a facebook search for your name. Do you see all those results? Those are all false positives that google would have to build algorithms to try and weed out.
... or (assuming they actually wanted to track users in this way), they could just use the unique-by-definition email address you registered with, or the unique-by-definition credit card number you used in google checkout, or get that information from AdWords partners when they track conversions ...
Since there are a thousand better (and less noticeable/public) ways to track users, we can safely ignore google wanting to "cross-relate your account with your buying behavior" as a possible motivation.
The idea that google somehow wants track your behavior through your name is laughable. Do a facebook search for your name. Do you see all those results? Those are all false positives that google would have to build algorithms to try and weed out.
... or (assuming they actually wanted to track users in this way), they could just use the unique-by-definition email address you registered with, or the unique-by-definition credit card number you used in google checkout, or get that information from AdWords partners when they track conversions ...
Since there are a thousand better (and less noticeable/public) ways to track users, we can safely ignore google wanting to "cross-relate your account with your buying behavior" as a possible motivation.