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You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity

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iplaudius
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
It is possible to maintain and preserve anonymity in online publications, but it is difficult. With blogs and so forth, your anonymity has to be part of your project’s design from the start, and it must be kept in mind, front and center, at all times. You have to drop misleading yet consistent information regularly and make sure to avoid giving any information that could connect to your real person. On top of that, you would have to use VPNs, IP masking, and probably some pretty out-of-the-way ISPs the entire time, from the very beginning. Otherwise, your anonymity goes out the window the moment you achieve enough renown to matter.
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badasscat
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
I run a little personal blog and I wrote one post a few years ago that ended up getting tons of mass media coverage. One of Gawker's own blogs (I won't say which) outed me, I'm pretty sure by looking through all my old posts and finding one where I had stupidly used my full name years previously when absolutely nobody was reading my blog or in fact knew what a blog even was.

It was actually kind of a scary experience, and I'd have preferred it all to have kept anonymous, in fact I'd have preferred not to have the media coverage at all to start with. I was just writing for my friends, but obviously blogs are public things.

All I could do was throw up my hands and say "oh well", I mean I did not have any pretense of thinking I had a "right" to anonymity. We all have a right to post anonymously and to try to protect our identities if we wish, but just the same others have a right to try to unmask us. And if they're successful, then that's it. All we can do is congratulate them on their sleuthing abilities.

A world where anonymity was legally protected would likely have all sorts of unintended consequences. For example, imagine thousands of government operatives all out there on the internet posting anonymously, inciting violence against enemy states, or against internal dissidents, their identity as government agents legally protected - trying to unmask them would get you arrested. That's just one example I can think of.
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Mo MoDo
06/16/09

@badasscat: So how has life been lately, Ms. Cutler?
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1.1.1.
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
Maybe the issues are different for commenters, but some of the best discussions I've read here, or on Jezebel, or below were excellent precisely because people did not use their real names.

In the example below, a young woman wrote a columnist at the New York Times seeking advice about a terrible situation. It's a moderated forum, but the writer said she'd had to delete only something like four comments out of over 600. In other words, the argument that people who comment anonymously invariably abuse the privilege does not fly.

And if you think the comments would have been of the same depth and honesty had everyone had to use his or her name I have a bridge to sell you.

[parenting.blogs.nytimes.com]
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The Real JR
06/16/09

@1.1.1.: I think the semi point here is that we can all use usernames and avatars and the like as personas, but we are not entitled to keep our true identities totally secret. There is no protection for that and neither should they.

Sure, like a form of digital Cyrano, some people can be far wittier or bolder when under the relative safety of anonymity, but much like IRL, if you say or do something, you have to own and take responsibility for it. Yes, there are extremes on either side of the spectrum when it comes to freedom to explore subcultures without fear of embarassment with the other side being those who commit crimes thinking they'll never be discovered.
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The Real JR
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
As a person who has witnessed and lived through the many levels of wankery and foolishness in LiveJournal and going as far back as Prodigy, I totally agree with this.

People need to stop hiding behind their keyboards.
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Mount_Prion
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
"But the notion that anonymous publishers have a right, in perpetuity, to keep their identities a secret-or that people who learn their identities are honor-bound not to reveal them-is nonsense."

What about people writing books under a nom de plume?

Damn that Dr. Seuss.
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Nice Beaver
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
" . . . when the jig is up, it's best for anonybloggers to endure the scrutiny with dignity rather than complain that people who had no obligation or interest in preserving their anonymity have behaved as such."

And how!!! I get so tired of Chinese human rights advocates whining about having their heads chopped off for criticizing their government. I'm always all, "You said what you said. Now take your medicine!"
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katekate is squared
06/16/09

@Nice Beaver: Hey, fair enough, but I don't think that's a completely fair comparison in the cases here. These guys aren't under threat of death if their identities come out. It's just inconvenient.
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Nice Beaver
06/16/09

@katekate is squared: OK, but where is the line? Is the threat of losing one's livelihood inconsequential? The threat of embarrassment? What merits protection?
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keram2
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
For all the sake of all the angry roadies out there, I hope this doesn't happen to Bike Snob.
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katekate is squared
06/16/09

@keram2: That would be the best/worst thing ever.
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RonMwangaguhunga
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
"nobody ought to have a right or privilege to publish whatever they please without the consequences of their ideas redounding to them."

I couldn't agree more.
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Cheap Shot
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
There is no such thing as commenter anonymity on the web. I learned that the hard way when someone at idolator outed me.
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BookishLatkeish
06/16/09

@Cheap Shot: But can you endure scrutiny, Cheap Shot? Are you really well priced and do you measure up to a real pour?
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ninety_nine
06/16/09

In reply to You Don't Have a Right to Anonymity
I wonder when people stopped complaining in other periodicals that The Economist doesn't run bylines?
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