GMail flaw reveals people's real names

Another high-profile security concern in the news today, Google has been caught with its pants down regarding people who have registered accounts with them. Due to a bug (or perhaps “feature”?) inside Gmail, it is possible to retrieve someone's name that is attached to their Gmail account, whether or not you are befriended to them or sharing any content with them on the Google network. So, if your account name is something random or an alias of any sort, someone could still use a simple exploit to see what your “real name” is, or at least the name you supplied to Google.

It is easy to see where this could be a problem, if someone was expecting their real name to stay private for one reason or another. With such a high profile, Google is sure to be aware of this – and hopefully will get it resolved shortly. Whether or not you care about your real name being revealed online, there are many out there who want to try their best to remain anonymous. Though, for them, the lesson here is to simply not share anything about yourself you want to remain private, no matter how secure you think the data will be.