In Google's relentless drive to encourage the world to give a damn about its Google+ social network, the software giant has decided to force users who want to leave reviews of Android apps to do so using their Google+ name and picture.
In short, there will be no more pseudonymous reviews on Google Play - from now on, any feedback you leave on Android apps will be accompanied by your name and photograph.
From now on, reviews you write will be posted publicly using your Google+ name and picture.
Your name on previous reviews will appear as "A Google User".
Note that Google hasn't given you anyway of opting-out of using your Google+ name and picture.
Earlier this year, Google began encouraging YouTube users to also start using their Google+ name and profile picture on the video-sharing site. Google is not yet enforcing the use of real names on YouTube, but if they did it might help clean up the cesspool of commentary that is frequently found up there.
Google Plus's real-name policy has been the subject of controversy in the past, as there are legitimate and understandable reasons why people sometimes want to be anonymous on the net.
Yes, even when leaving app reviews. For instance, you can understand why some folks may not want others to know what Android apps they have installed, or to have crazy-ass app developers know exactly who it was who slagged off their rubbish fart app.
Meanwhile, there are no such problems over in the rival iTunes app store for iPhone and iPad owners, who Apple allows to use a pseudonym when leaving reviews.
If you have an Android device, and these are issues that concern you, then the answer is simple - either stop leaving reviews of Android apps, or create a bogus Google+ account using a pseudonym and hope that Google doesn't notice you've broken their rules.
Follow @gcluley
![Have your say - LulzSec: helpful, harmless or hideous? [VOTE NOW]](http://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/lulzsec-poll-thumb.jpg?w=75&h=75&crop=1)
![Password security infomerical leaves Ellen DeGeneres in disbelief.. and it will you too [VIDEO]](http://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ellen-thumb.jpg?w=75&h=75&crop=1)
![Can multiple moving cursors really hide your password from spyware and peepers? [VIDEO]](http://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/cursors-thumb.jpg?w=75&h=75&crop=1)
![Hacked TV channels broadcast zombie apocalypse emergency alert [VIDEO]](http://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/zombie-thumb.jpg?w=75&h=75&crop=1)
Semantic imprecision is such a handy thing. Never having bothered to define "evil", Google gets to preach "Don't be evil" while they personify it in their relentless attack on privacy.
So,if you don't have Goggle + account you can't leave a review on Google Play ?
Dude. If you're sour about Google's decision, by all means, join the Apple cult. They enjoy so much more freedom. No, really.
...er, this isn't about Apple. Nor is it about "freedom"...well, except to the extent that your freedom depends upon your privacy. That extent is only huge.
Look, we're talking about software reviews here. Demanding that users reveal their real names and photos in order to post a review is absurd. When I write software reviews, they are substantive. There is no doubt that I've used the software, and that I'm providing INFORMATION that might actually benefit other users. Who I am is irrelevant.. And when I read reviews, I look for similar qualities. Superficial reviews or flames without any explanation are simply noise, and I ignore them.
I'll concede that anonymity probably increases the noise content. After all, one look at the comments on most YouTube videos establishes that clearly enough. But the fact remains that there is significant risk of identity theft and other identity and privacy related crimes and mischief by exposing oneself on the Internet, and the more information you expose, the greater the risk. I don't see any necessity to increase that risk just to post a software review.
Google is pushing away conscientious, security-conscious users, and when they're all gone, all that will be left is the idiots. They will have reaped what they sowed.
I'd already changed my first name in Google to something abbreviated that no one actually calls me. I'm glad I did. Giving my last name out to the entire world just because I like (or hate) an app is bad enough.
You have a Google+ "account" by virtue of having a Gmail address whether you use it or not. It pulls your name from your overall Google information.
I've stopped reviewing because I don't want my name and information right there on a review for angry birds or anything else for that matter. I'm not a big fan of this new system. Change it, please, Google!
I closed my fb acct. My twit acct. My myspace acct. All due to privacy concerns. This is the last straw.
Because of all this, three words: Samsung. Ativ. Odyssey. I'm gonna take the Microsoft route. Google just made Android worse by "integrating their product, Google , to everything". Give it time, we won't be able to comment on YouTube unless... you guessed it... connect our Google account.
I removed G due to security and privacy concern: people circling me hacked into my email account, despite my Gmail address being hidden to all people but the ones I circle (back). Rather have that two-way thing Facebook has anyday.
It looks like the bigger Google gets, the greedier they get. If you like one of their products they want to force all of them down your throat and they don't see a problem with it. Today I tried to leave a review in the Play store to find I have to join Google+ to do so. Which wouldn't be so bad except I HAVE TO agree to let them use my information for their advertising and for other companies or I can't join. I don't like that. I paid for the app's, isn't that enough revenue? They need to sell my information to? They used to be against that. I used to like Google but the more invasive they get the more I shy away. I can't imagine what they'll be like in 10 or 20 years. I half expect them to sneak into my house and look in my underwear drawer to see what brand of socks I buy, then email me ads for them. Then again maybe I'm just paranoid and privacy's becoming a thing of the past.
I've been inactive on google+ since the real name controversy broke, and this was the straw that led me to actually delete my profile. Now google tries to force me to join if I want to rate an app. No dice google. I'll just not rate apps any more.
Google is evil. I've been with them from the get-go, when it was just a 'less intrusive' search engine than webcrawler and such...and I too, today, went all the way into apps, just to leave a--positive--review on my 'simple alarm clock' app, which worked so well...and all of a sudden I get this forced shove into google+, which I have resisted thus far.
I almost signed up, thinking, 'hey, who cares...' but it's just so wrong. And so pushy. I mean, no big deal, I can live without leaving reviews, but I"ve been such a google fan for so long,--I remember getting the Nexus One when it first came out, and how happy I was the day I found a box on my doorstep, and realized Google had sent me one of their cr48 chromebooks, and it just reinforced my approval of the company.
But this was too much...I'm pretty much back to linux anyway, between google and microsoft, it's the last refuge of the freedom seekers among us...but google is hard to escape...android is, anyway...I like android, linux based, all the deal...but google is acting just like microsoft did, back when MS was trying to take over the world...
DuckDuckGo, here I come ;)
I've now stopped leaving app reviews on the Play store. And I can see how other privacy minded users would be doing the same. Such a dick move by Google!
Does anyone really believe there is any motive in this other than to try to force people to use Google+? This isn't going to stop companies from creating hundreds of dummy accounts to pump up their ratings. As for cleaning up commentary: Sure there are a few obnoxious reviews on the market from time to time, but it's not as if you can have any big flame wars when there's no way for reviewers to endlessly reply to each other. Go take a look at the comments on some of the news sites that have started requiring people to log in with their facebook accounts or whatever and see if they've really become any more civil. If anything, they're more hateful than ever. Mark my words: the quality of the reviews in the Play store is going to go into freefall. The only people who will post reviews from here on out are people too ignorant to be concerned about their privacy.
This is really the tipping point for me where I start not to like Google anymore. I can clearly see the roadmap: YouTube, Google Maps, Picasa, ... step by step they will force people to use Google+ with their real identity policy. One day they will even force your real picture with rules like no sunglasses. I used to believe Google is "only" interested in pushing ads. For this they don't need real identities. Google gives a shit about the quality of the app market comments. All they want is more accurate information about their ad consumers in the best case from their birth on without interruptions that occur when you dare to create a new fake Google account and close the old one.
As a technical person I do not agree with this google idea , If you don't have Goggle + account you can't leave a review on google play.
One of the many, many reasons I've left Google behind. I don't use their search engine any more - I use DuckDuckGo. I don't use Picasa, I use Photobucket. And I'll be moving from Blogger to WordPress in the next week and severing my last remaining attachment to the privacy nightmare that is the Google Monster. They are evil personified. I wouldn't trust them with my screen name, let alone my real one.