Google Reviews Using Your Real Name

Posting  on http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/_lhgjeLIwMg

@MB-CBS

I agree with your sentiments. I have found most reviewers to leave honest feedback and most businesses strive to make improvements in response to customer feedback. I find this policy change of showing peoples names needed, because a few bad apples ruined the bunch. Being an anonymous user gives people the power to say things they never would normally. Because some people have abused this power now all the rest of us are being "punished."

@AnonymousCoward123

I post as myself everywhere and have a unique name so I am obviously biased against anonymity. Statistically speaking, a person who post using their real name live just as happy a life as those that do not. I have not seen any negative effects in my life as a result of posting using my real name and believe most people who do would say the same. Again this goes back to the extremes. Most people in America are not a part of a persecuted minority group. Because of this, your comment does not seem applicable to most people living in America. I do agree with your conclusion though, that privacy is valuable to some people and in some situations, this mostly comes down to common sense. Anonymous name or not I would not post a public review of my primary bank, as this would not be a good idea. With the vast number of Americas using smart technology, on-line services, and numerous digital resources, privacy is simply a figment of the imagination. Even hundreds of years ago when people lived in small towns and neighborhoods there was no such thing as "privacy." Anonymous reviews or not, if a person wants to find you they can.

Realistically I think the issue has more to do with businesses having access to people's names with the potential to hound them than any privacy issues. Again we are looking at the extreme cases as I have posted hundreds of negative and positive reviews of businesses with absolutely no problem whatsoever. I would like to reiterate, if you are online making reviews then ANYONE has the potential of monitoring you. In reality, this usually is not a problem though. If you are an average American, then posting reviews using your real name will likely not effect you in any way whatsoever, so long as you use common sense.

The most important reason that real names should be used comes down to the USA legal system. Whoever stands to loose the most is given preferential treatment (this is why pedestrians have the right of way, and there are many more examples). So we now have two situations (both of which are not likely but possible).
1. Users being hounded by businesses to change their review.
2. Anonymous user posting a horrible, untrue review.

In case 1 being hounded could cause serious issues in a persons life (but in the vast majority of cases this is simply viewed as an irritant) and there are many avenues of recourse available to people who are being hounded. The main one being to sue a business that does this.
In case 2 a horrible review could cause negative publicity and could even put a business out of operation, which would be far more damaging than a simple irritant. More that this, there is absolutely no recourse of action a business could take in this situation unless they already have a good idea who made this comment, and even then possibly not due to free speech.