SL Display Names Causing Account Identity Confusion - and Opening Potential for Malicious Impersonation

Alicia Chenaux has an important post about her friend Lexi Morgan, a veteran SLer, who recently discovered that another, much more recent SLer was also going by the name "Lexi Morgan" (see screencaps above.) This is possible because last year, Linden Lab made it possible for users to have a display name that is different from their account name. (Previous to this, both were the same.) And while it's certainly possible that the new "Lexi Morgan" made her display name "Lexi Morgan" not because she wants to impersonate Lexi Morgan, but merely because she likes the name Lexi Morgan, the potential for malicious impersonation certainly exists. As Alicia puts it:

When display names were first introduced, MANY people were upset. The content creators - you know, the people who make us look good and generally pay a lot in fees every month for sims and marketplace and uploads? - were especially worried. What would keep someone from using their name? Would that be possible? WHY would it be possible? But they were assured that no, that wouldn't happen. Linden Lab would help protect them, protect all of us with legacy names. Turns out? Not so much.

Read it all here. I've contacted Linden Lab about this issue and will report whatever they say next week.

Comments

[Saffia Widdershins]

Perhaps, Hamlet, when you talk to them, you could gently suggest that they look at the Jira - https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7125? as bringing back individual user names is something that is dearly wanted by many people using their product - and it would avoid this problem.

[Carina Raymaker]

I am waiting for a case like this since the invention of the display name "fetature". It's remarkable, that this didn't happen earlier.

For shooting illustrating images in my (german) blogpost relating to display names back in november 2010 I changed my display name to my friend's name. She was not amused seeing me wearing her name.

What's even worse: All of the objects rezzed inworld are also showing the display name which of course could be very misleading.

http://www.deutsche-mentoren.de/blog/2010/11/20/die-invasion-der-residents/

[Uccello]

We all knew this would happen as far back as the feature's Beta phase. That is why The Lab allows the tags above our heads to show both the Display Name and our User Name at the same time.

Preferences > General > Usernames

Folks I have talked to about this seem to be amazed the lab would let it happen. But it happens in Real Life, too. About 3 blocks from where one of my RL brothers lives is a man with the exact same first, middle, and last names. Even the Postal Service confuses them.

Someone needs to find out how serious the issue is before demanding a Big Brother solution to it.

[Bear Silvershade]

Really kind of a tempest in a teapot. As with most people, when I am out in the air-breathing world, I find many people have exactly the same name as me. I can't recall anyone ever mistaking me for the nuclear physcist, cyclist, hockey player etc. who happen to share my name.

Why would I worry about the same thing happening in world? Is it going to make any real difference? If I am looking for Lexi Morgan the designer, I am going to look through all the Lexi's until I find her.

If this had been a case of someone deliberately copying details of L.M.'s profile, that's a different matter - that's identity theft. But happening to choose the same name? I'll bet L.M. #2 didn't even know who the first one was when she chose the name.

Please, list for me the consequences of having a similar name, not related to purposeful identity theft? The worst I could think of would be a friend trying to lend L.M. #1 some money and sending it to the wrong person... oh, but then, that would probably mean the friend had both L.M.'s on her list. Let's face it, L.M. the designer probably doesn't accept direct payments for her products.

And before someone says that LL could end up transferring funds or goods to the wrong avatar, that is done via UUID, not display or user name.

@carina, when I rezz something in world, I am pretty sure it shows my user name, not my display name.

[Dirk Talamasca]

Old news.. but.. it is SL.. Everyone wants to fix it.. but only after they ignore it and it bites them in the ass.

[bronxelf]

Aaaactually....

The Lab did NOT say they would protect us. What they did was the opposite and suggested that if someone was using the same name as you, you should change YOUR name, via the use of the display name feature as well. We always knew they werent going to protect a damned thing.

[Carina Raymaker]

@Bear - the viewer shows the display name first and in brackets also the user name (at least Phoenix does). Same as in profiles. So the attribution is clear - but not without any ambiguity.

Of course there's lots of ppl in RL having identical names. But in SL your identity is much more defined by your name than it is in RL - in RL one won't change the hair, shape or tatoos several times per day.

Apart from intentional cases of "identity theft" for me the possibility of changing the display name has no legal implications.
From a technical point of view every user account has a uniqe key.

But it makes names interchangeable. Maybe someone having an RL name like John Smith ist used to that. Maybe my feelings only derive from the lack of this experience in RL, because my combination of first and second name in RL isn't that common.

[Ordinal Malaprop]

I can't see how it could _possibly_ have been predicted that people being able to _arbitrarily choose display names that mimicked other people's_ could _ever_ cause an issue.

We are so hard on Linden Lab. Who could have foreseen this?

[Nyoko Salome]

;0 thinks ordinal might have meant to add to her tag... but i agree. the idea that you could have -another- name, changeable on whim... that is 'officially' entered into the lab database... is a little odd. and negatively impacting upon anyone's, -EVERYONE'S- ability to identify themselves with others with any integrity.

i know things are quizzical/questionable all regarding rl identity in this internet day-and-age, but... couldn't they have made, and left, this silly decision behind in a better way? (i guess the decision did come during, oh what's-his-name's reign in the lab - i had nothing much against him, but let's place the time-and-date appropriately...)

;0 anyone who wants to be 'identified differently/temporarily' for whatever reason... can easily wear a head 'floating text tag' attachment, iding themselves as anything they want. (and it would have been a much more easily 'dismissible' way to tell people apart, even for newbs with a modicum of FAQs under their belt.)

:\ a bit of a misfire from the labs. anyway they can backtrack this decision now? i hope so...

[Nyoko Salome]

;0 thinks ordinal might have meant to add to her tag... but i agree. the idea that you could have -another- name, changeable on whim... that is 'officially' entered into the lab database... is a little odd. and negatively impacting upon anyone's, -EVERYONE'S- ability to identify themselves with others with any integrity.

i know things are quizzical/questionable all regarding rl identity in this internet day-and-age, but... couldn't they have made, and left, this silly decision behind in a better way? (i guess the decision did come during, oh what's-his-name's reign in the lab - i had nothing much against him, but let's place the time-and-date appropriately...)

;0 anyone who wants to be 'identified differently/temporarily' for whatever reason... can easily wear a head 'floating text tag' attachment, iding themselves as anything they want. (and it would have been a much more easily 'dismissible' way to tell people apart, even for newbs with a modicum of FAQs under their belt.)

:\ a bit of a misfire from the labs. anyway they can backtrack this decision now? i hope so...

[Nyoko Salome]

;0 oh, field-input here doesn't allow carot-marks? ;0 i meant to say oridinal maybe did not include (|snark) in her post; please mentally substitute carots and angled-slashes appropriately ;0

[Nyoko Salome]

and -darned- the darned double-posting again!! ;0 whatever 'scoopy' blogscripts are supposed to take it in are super-laggy here... beware yourselves, if you try to yourselves...

[Zulu]

Interesting through, but there have even much interesting situation in RL China. Fact are many small village there will habitually live the dame 2nd name people and those chinese also like to have a single chinese character 1st name. Some of the chinese characters are extremely popular. So it make people same name highly possible. I heard one criminal investigation need to arrest over 30 same name people in a village. Same names can be troublesome very much,

[Ziki Questi]

bronxelf is correct -- I recall directly raising this issue way back when, and the Lab's response (might have been Torley as I recall) said that if someone else starts using your name then you could change your name to something else. Delightful logic, huh?

[bodzette]

More drama.

Pick a name. Any name.

Then go look up a phonebook.

You can *guarantee* that in *any* city in the country you will find people with the same name as you.

Only in SL does this cause drama.

Sorry girls, you're *not* unique based on your name. Live with it.

[Alicia Chenaux]

"Sorry girls, you're *not* unique based on your name. Live with it."

I beg to differ. In SL, we have ALL been unique based on our names. In a world where anyone can buy/bot your same shape, the same skin, the same hair, what more do you have BUT your name?

And just as an added piece of trivia, the Screen Actors Guild will NOT let someone register with them if someone else has their name already. Michael Andrew Fox became Michael J. Fox because a Michael Fox was already a member of the Screen Actors Guild.

So even if Beth36 is in fact a RL Lexi Morgan, it doesn't/shouldn't matter because in the world of SL, that name is taken.

[Uccello]

I soooo envy Ordinal Malaprop her name and will change my Display Name to hers after I've spent a couple weeks as yet another Lexi Morgan, assuming my wife lets me change from our shared last name. But if any of you posers tries to be Uccello Poultry ... well, go ahead and see if it works out better for you. :P

[Laro]

Among my creator friends we have at least one case per month where a 'resident' copies/mirrors a creator profile down to the profile pic, picks, rl tab (photos taken from flickr or bad screenshots) AND takes the same name ...
then they show up in search directly next to the creator sometimes even first when searching the shop etc ... and they wait until someone contacts them for customer support ... and rips off money from them.
Something that is impossible without display names, and LL doesn't act on these cases. AR can only file the person who got ripped but i never heard of any consequences for the impostor. DMCAs for stolen flickr pics are ignored. Usually these guys abandon the 'resident' after 2 weeks because they start to fear consequences, which never happen.

And another story how LL 'protects' our names: As far as i remember they did say they will 'protect' our names. When display names came up we all tried to make a store alt with our store name because picks don't show up in search anymore. But for many as for me it said "name already taken" although there didn't exist any 'resident' with this name. So LL basically protected us from ourselves.

[variable]

I like being able to change my display name... and do it regularly... depending on my mood :)
In fact I find it annoying when people - presumably with older viewers? - insist on using my username.
Sure, some people will try to abuse it, but I hope we don't change back just because of griefers.

[Kim]

A year after LL phased out its archaic naming system, another article about the "potential" for maliciousness without a single example of this ever actually causing any widespread harm of any kind.

Display names open up a world of possibilities, as SL should, while the old system mandated arbitrary and nonsensical last names.

User names are fixed, and even the noobiest of noobs knows this, because that's the way it is EVERYWHERE else online.

[Sparticus]

They should have made the noob surname Sparticus...

[Arcadia Codesmith]

It looks like Lexi got her issue resolved... after about 25 abuse reports (and maybe a word from Hamlet on her behalf).

Unacceptable. After one abuse report, the ball is in their court. We shouldn't have to rely on "squeaky wheel" tactics to get the Lab to enforce their own goddamn policies.

The system can and should mandate unique display names as easily as unique user names. That won't eliminate spoofing, but it'll cut down on it.

If I were a high-end content creator with some cash flow, I would look into trademarking my name. That gives you some leverage beyond LL's always anemic enforcement.

[o.O]

wow... so if I call myself "Lexi Morgan" Lexi will file 25 abuse reports against me?!?!?!
I have to try that!!!