Google's CEO Eric Schmidt was interviewed by Stephen Colbert yesterday. Colbert asked him about his "Want privacy? Change your name!" quote. Schmidt's answer: "It was a joke, it just wasn't very good." Au contraire, Monsieur Schmidt. You are hilarious.
My gut feeling is that Schmidt was serious about his original suggestion: Changing our name if we want privacy may be the only solution to get some privacy at this point, given where things are going to. Or perhaps we just need Don't Track Me legislation.
But if you were really joking, Mr. Schmidt, next time remember that, when you are the CEO of a company that has information about most internet users out there, you just don't make jokes about their privacy. Because that makes you look like a clown. Or Mark Zuckerberg. [Gawker.TV]