The Blogo’Shawn

Ay Caramba!  Second Life suffers a nasty blow.  Up until recently, the virtual world has fallen prey to inexplicable, sometimes goofy, in-world hacks that have temporarily compromised the grid’s integrity with the most widespread repercussion being residents bumped out-of-play.  However, last week, a more severe hack occurred as crucial user information was swiped — namely, the hush-hush data correlating in-world identities to real-world names and addresses.  (Linden Labs says that credit card information should not have been compromised…hmm, let’s very much hope not!) 

The threat then is not so much identity theft as identity revelation - the perpetrator(s) should now be able to correlate Second Life personas with real-word identities and thus the veil of anonymity could be breached…majorly.  In a worst case scenario, such information could be used for purposes of blackmail in the real world.  After all, bear in mind, that a goodly number of uninhibited Second Souls have engaged in cyber-sordid deeds, often unbeknownst to corporeal friends and family.  Although with cyber-authorities hot on the trail, as Linden Labs hints at in their response, we might hope to see some haggard hackers dragged into unpixellated daylight before long.

Honestly, I believe it was only a matter of time before something of this nature occurred, and all things considered, better to be aware of the danger earlier in the “game” rather than years down the line as stakes increase.  As cyberspace continues to grow in complexity, so too will the interactions that take place in it.  This incident brings realization that the persona projected into a virtual world could have ramifications for a person in the real world, no different than anything projected onto the Internet that can be traced back to a person…only last week, respondents to a Craiglist solicitation ad were blatantly outed, some of whom were identified by their, ahem, telling characteristics.  Outcry and ridicule proved fairly scathing online, and it’s not too hard to imagine that some of the participants’ real-life reputations were more than just tarnished; the prank may cost jobs and relationships.  In a karmic twist, the scandal even whiplashed right back into the Craigslist prankster when his blog was picked apart for juicy morsels of violated privacy.  I’m sure these hapless guys had little idea what was in store for them as they exposed unfettered versions of themselves online while also unwittingly providing revealing shreds of traceable information, like work emails, cell phones, true personal lives, and, oh my, those wild and wooly pictures.  Gah!

The hard lesson is that online privacy fundamentally does not exist.  It’s quite alluring to let yourself slip into a fantasy or imaginary world, though, and that’s where dreams can shatter if you don’t take care.  I can’t resist mentioning Warren Buffett’s Golden Rule as printed in Business 2.0:

 ”There can’t be two yous.”

…unless risk is your middle name