I also have a first and last name that is unique though I don't know if it's the only one in the world. I know it's the only one in my county, and that's disquieting enough. Like you, I don't feel at all comfortable giving out my full name and nothing else which is also why I never use it in any connection with my computer.
In this situation though, he already knew in sending the letter that everything about him was going to be discovered by authorities anyway, and I doubt that some boob putting the letter on the internet without redacting his personal info had ever occurred to him (I doubt it would have occurred to me either especially considering that such documents are routinely put out into the media with personal information redacted). Seeing as his letter was a second or even third attempt to get someone in authority to take his information seriously considering that there was one or two attempts of his trying to relay what he saw that got no response that probably also had a lot to do with what information he gave in the letter.
In his place if it were me knowing how important I believed the information was especially to the grieving families as well as knowing that such information would be discovered anyway but only waste the time of the authorities in having to seek it out to verify who I was and the info I gave I too would have freely given identity info to save that wasted time and not thought at all that someone was so stupid as to put the information out on the internet without first redacting such personal information. I wouldn't even have thought that the letter would have been put out so publicly in the first place at all when no other information had been. Then again, I also live in a country that when I give information to someone in authority whether an employment application or court papers or whatever it isn't going to be made public at all or if it is that such personal information would be routinely redacted. The biggest thing I'd have been thinking would have been probably the same as this guy was - that it was vital information that was needed to be taken seriously, knowing that everything about the sender would be discovered and scrutinized in order for authorities to verify not only the identity of the person giving the information but the veracity of the claims anyway and in a "beat the clock" situation as well as when authorities had already seemed to blow it off when he first made one or two attempts to get someone in authority to take the information seriously that was believed to have failed.
I'm actually very surprised that someone in authority put the actual letter out into the public in the first place rather than just revealing some or all of it's contents and really surprised that it was given out without any of either his personal information being redacted as well as some information of the receiver of the information. I'm hard-pressed to think of a time when that's happened, but again, that's in my own country where it's customary to not give out sensitive info in the first place and instead quote from that info and when the original is given out that the authorities redact personal information and the media does also in the event that someone in authority goofed and handed original info to the media without first redacting.
After so many days of this though it's looking more and more that the Malaysian authorities are woefully disorganized in verifying information, public relations and even the search itself with several countries complaining about no one seeming to be in charge. But I also think the media has been a disgrace of misquoting, spreading rumors and not updating or correcting information.
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