Anonymity - crucial or a menace?
 

What's your stance? Internet anonymity is crucial to me. I have avoided every single website that requires my true name - and also avoided every single email that requires something personal like a telephone number.

There are, however, people who think that anonymity is a huge problem.


How to Fix the Internet
Anonymity has poisoned online life
By Walter Isaacson

https://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...ternet/510797/

By accident I was listening to this discussion with Walter Isaacson concerning Leonardo DaVinci while I read your post. So I read the article you mentioned while listening to the following:
https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-01-...ter-impresario

I agree with Isaacson. We would never agree to anonymity in our direct personal interactions. Let me give you some examples:

• Would you drop your children off at a school where the teachers wore masks and hid their identity? Of course not.
• Would a bank give you a loan if you walked in wearing a mask with no identification? No!
• When I visit customer offices as part of my work (I’m in technical sales), I must show my driver license or other photo identification (such as a passport) at every government office, government contractor office, and all but the smallest commercial offices.
• If anyone could send through your email provider’s SMTP sending server (which is called an open relay), a spammer could send many thousands of spam and malware messages per hour using a bot and they could not be stopped (since they would be anonymous). This happened in the early deployment of email, but open relays now are not allowed due to their misuse and the fact that the owner of the serve can’t charge for running the server.
• If the EMD Forums allowed anyone to post without setting up an account with a password, the deluge of spam would make this website unusable.
• If someone could anonymously make a claim to law enforcement about you and that was all that was needed to convict you, or law enforcement couldn’t identify someone they arrested while committing a crime, our system of laws would fall apart.

Bill

Crucial!!!!!!!!

Like everything, there are many shades of grey here. For example, if you forced everyone to reveal their true identity you would eliminate many whistle blowers at companies big and small. What about voting? Yes, you need to establish your identity to the system, but do you want your voting records stored and therefore possibly available to the public? I happen to know of a sexual predator whose victims were children. People didn't come forward for years because they were afraid of being exposed to all the nastiness that comes with this sort of thing. There are many places in the world where critical words written about whomever is in power might mean a midnight visit from the police and a trip to a dungeon.I know I would be very relucatant to participate in most online forums if my true identity were available simply because you never know who will use it to stalk you, threaten you, or possibly deny you a job or worse. I quit a rather wonderful forum because I went by my true identity and there was a nutcase there who threatened me with all sorts of vile stuff. Several people I know were attacked by him. I believe one lost his job because of this person's false attacks sent to the person's employer. Others were attacked digitally via the Internet and had their computer systems wrecked. The threatener was a a bit of an evil genius software hacker. Someone else I know called the police on him several times because of the threats.

Based on my current anonymity profile on the internet, not so critical. I use my real name is a few places. I tend to try and stick with following TOS's so My real name is used were appropriate. I don't like giving out my phone number though and so far have been successful in doing so. Not so much for privacy though, just don't want to be annoyed with useless text. My brother recently asked me to check out Google Duo so we could chat, I had not heard of it before. Checked it out downloaded it, discovered it needs my number, not going to happen. I already have a Skype account so, I told him to try that.

Anonymity is fading away. It won't be long till everyone has to submit a dna sample to interact online.

Yup things are getting quite intrusive thats for sure!!!

Its very scary...........

One danger of seeking anonymity is that it can make you stick out like a sore thumb in a world where most people share lots of details of their lives. For example, I know that many companies hire services that scan the entire Internet for traces of your existence and if you don't show up on things like Facebook and LinkedIn it would look very suspicious. I would guess that your job application might never make it out of the round of AI scanning if that were the case. Even when applying for jobs at small companies one of the first things any hiring manager does is to Google search you, check your Facebook, etc. If you don't show up it would make you seem very strange--I know, because I do a fair bit of hiring! Similarly, if I am looking for a job and companies don't have clear contact information, photos and information on the staff, and other background I am much less likely to see that organization as legitimate.

Well, with all the information FB is asking, I doubt we netizens still have anonimity. People tend to overshare personal details these days even on FB!

I find the above post very frightening. May heaven forbid that anyone's chances for employment would depend on a "social media" presence, or that someone might be penalized because he or she prefers to steer clear of that sort of thing. As for being "much less likely to see [an] organization as legitimate" if they don't have plenty of "contact information, photos and information" on their site about their staff, that may be a fair point about a company that wants your business and your money, but surely an individual person shouldn't be subjected to the same expectations of what he ought to display on line in order to seem "legitimate" as the expectations that can reasonably be applied to a business! You might as well say that unless an individual posts quarterly financial reports or tax returns on line, he is somehow less than legitimate. This attitude leads to the total death of all privacy, of all expectations of privacy, even of the notion of the existence or concept of privacy itself, which is apparently close to being here among the young, who have never known a world in which such a thing exists. Heaven help us all. (In Iceland, I believe the government does post every citizen's tax return on line, and also medical records and DNA profiles.)

Yes which is why its good staying off that site!!!


Block everything you can from FB!!!!!!

I am not endorsing the state of affairs, just pointing out the reality that employers expect people to have a social media presence and if they don't it could be a red flag. Here's one of many articles on this subject.

Money quote: "One-quarter of hiring managers expect candidates to have some sort of online presence, and nearly 60 percent are less likely to call someone in for interview if they can't find them online."

Well thats so they can spy on you.......... I know several people who wont work with someone like that...

What a spammer.!:)

Moderator's Comment
 

Spammer gone...

When online, always use an alias, unless you're dealing with someone whom you're reasonably sure you can trust.

Also, has anyone noticed an increasing number of Facebook users going private?

I think anyone who uses Facebook can say something about anonimity. All these questions on your profile are basically data that can be used against you. That's why I keep everything on my profile blank except for my name.

Maybe so, but then you might not get the job you want either! I am reminded of people I used to speak to at trade shows all over the country. We would be offering free stuff for people willing to sign up with their contact information. Most would happily do so and some lucky person would get the free stuff. There would inevitably be someone upset that they had to provide contact information in order to get the free stuff. It is a swap. You sign up, you get the free stuff, the company gets to pitch products to you, and most people are happy with the deal. If you are not, you can opt out by not participating.

However, I think with privacy today it is a one-sided deal. You are giving up lots of information about yourself whether you like it or not due to everything being tracked, and if you opt out of the free stuff you get no benefit. With extraordinary efforts you might limit what information you give up, but in the end it makes no difference other than you have cut yourself off from the benefits without any gain.

Excuse me, but we have all kinds of interactions in real life that are completely anonymous.
-I can make cash purchases in any ordinary store.
-I can stroll into a a library or book store and read anything anonymously on the premises.
-I can have casual conversations with strangers.
-I can attend any kind of entertainment event anonymously, as long as it doesn't involve a credit card payment.
-I can do a variety of postal actions, including sending mail, anonymously.

The examples you're using are all long-term relationships where something crucial is at stake. That doesn't necessarily hold true on the internet.

You might not be anonymous when performing all of those activities.

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucesc.../#37c5294e4cfb
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-janet-vertesi
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_bill_tracking
• http://www.securitynewsdesk.com/libr...-surveillance/
• https://petapixel.com/2012/12/22/the...on-the-street/
• In the US you can’t anonymously send stamped mailing pieces heavier than 13 ounces for security tracking reasons.