Privacy advocates were celebrating today when it was announced that the notorious spy "Big Brother" had been banned from Google's new social network for using a pseudonym.
Google initially changed Big Brother's profile to use his real name, Colin Strickland. Only when he changed it back did they ban him outright. With the banning, Strickland lost access to his extensive email and photo archives, as well as access to his contact list, which was arranged into two 'Circles', named "Citizens" and "Mum".
Privacy advocates, once uneasy about Google's "no pseudonyms" policy, have now stopped worrying about it. Gary Sanderson wrote on his new, public account, "now that Big Brother isn't watching us, I can finally tell you what I really think of my boss!" His post was 'geotagged' to the offices of Cybix Computer Supplies in Oxford.
It is believed that Big Brother is still a regular user of Twitter, although he was banned from Facebook in 2008 when Endemol wrote to the networking giant claiming that his username was infringing their trademark.