Okay, let's not redefine things by people behaving badly. Let's define it simply: If it can be found by Google or other search engine, it isn't private. No one is behaving badly by googling you if you are a prospective author or a published one. And whether you like it or not, people WILL judge you by what they find. Maybe it won't be accurate or fair, but you can win or lose a business deal or readers or jobs based on what can be googled.
Period.
If you don't like it, don't EVER post on the 'Net using either your real name or the name you'll publish under. It's really that simple.
Sure, that definition works for me. SYW, Facebook (and the various other examples I've been using) don't come up on google searches. As long as all that's being discussed is a simple google search, I have no stake in the discussion at all.
There's a lot of things in this thread being discussed at once. I agree that a blog post put out there for anyone to read is going to be, and rightfully is, read by anyone and judged within whatever that person brings to the table. If it's posted using a publication name of an author, it's going to be attached to that author. And there's nothing unreasonable about that.
I disagree that everything on the internet is public, just because it's on the net.
I also have a problem with a specific person who has more information than the general public by virtue of a business relationship, using that information in ways I consider unprofessional. Or going beyond google searches.
Usually I use a handle. Sagana is not my real name. It's not the name I'd publish under either, but let's just say it was. And my Facebook account is under my real name. Which most people don't know. An agent, however, knows my real name because I have to give them that information to be paid. They have to know what name to put on the check.
Actually it's extraordinarily complicated. How much information do you feel an agent or publisher is entitled to?
Is it reasonable for them to run a financial check on you? How about drug testing? Would you be willing to take a drug test if an agent required it before working with you? Or would you be ok with them looking up the results of any drug test you had in the past? Or medical histories? All of those are things people can obtain.
I think some of those would be more reasonable for determining a business relationship than trolling my facebook page to see whether it's a "looooong list of games" or not
But they're all very invasive. And some employers require them.
But an agent isn't your employer. Actually an agent works for the author. The agent is paid from the earnings on an author's work. In some ways I'm bothered by the thread because the balance of power seems so messed up.
Do you google the agents (I hope so, and read the Beware threads here too)? Would you go further than that and go through their facebook pages to decide whether you want to work with them or not? If they have long lists of games (or spend entirely too much time tweeting), do you think that indicates how good they are at their jobs? How about pulling their financial records? Or their medical ones?
This is the information age. Anything is available for a price.