The real you: Say goodbye to online anonymity

[icymist]

Online anonymity may be a luxury we can no longer afford – and it's disappearing fast anyway. Are we ready to bare all on the internet?

IN JULY last year, Orlando Figes, one of the UK's most eminent historians, admitted posting savage critiques of rivals' books on the Amazon website under the pseudonym "Historian" - alongside praise of his own. His eventual confession came only after he had threatened to take legal action against anyone who accused him of the misdeed. Later he blamed his wife for the reviews.

Figes's online behaviour is an example of what's known as sock puppetry - pretending to be someone other than who you are for the sake of furthering your own interests. It made for a juicy academic scandal that in the end hurt him more than anyone else, but the consequences of the internet's ability to cloak users' identities aren't always so confined. Vicious cyberbullying has, in extreme cases, driven victims to suicide. Scammers and spammers can hijack email addresses to steal banking credentials and even state secrets. Earlier this year, for example, a convincing email fooled several senior US government officials into handing over their email passwords to hackers. For all the benefits that the internet has brought us, it often remains a deeply uncivilised place.

Illegal and just plain bad behaviour online has sparked discussions of new laws to combat cyberbullying and secure the internet from criminal activity. Such legislation may soon be irrelevant. Several companies are building tools that can identify internet users with unprecedented precision. Proponents claims the new tools will lead to a safer and less hostile internet. If the internet is to keep developing, they say, perhaps we can no longer afford to live in an anonymous environment where no one need ever be held accountable for their actions. Are we ready to abandon the option of shielding our online identity?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228361.800-the-real-you-say-goodbye-to-online-anonymity.html

[snagglepuss]

1. .

[canetoad]

2. Good article

Well worth reading. k&r

[Kablooie]

3. God. I hope not. I don't want any of you to know that I'm really George W. Bush.

[lonestarnot]

13. OMG, get this kid a shrink!

ROFLMOA

[cliffordu]

4. I'm a sock puppet in real life.

here at DU I am myself.....

[XemaSab]

12. That's sometimes how I feel

Being anonymous sometimes means that you can be honest in a way that you can't be in your personal life.

[court jester]

5. BlueCava--interesting...

from the link:
"...One of the most powerful identity tracking systems now available is offered by BlueCava, a company based in Irvine, California, that helps websites monitor fraud, among other things. BlueCava's software "fingerprints" any device that someone uses to visit a website, be it a desktop or laptop computer or a mobile device like a smartphone. That fingerprint is made possible by the hundreds of types of data that browsers send when connecting to a website, from the machine's operating system to the time zone in which the device is set to operate (see diagram).

BlueCava combines these bits of information to create a unique ID number for every device that accesses a website running the company's software. The firm has assembled a dossier on 1 billion devices, and Norris estimates that the number will double in the coming year. At this rate, it won't be long, he says, before all 10 billion internet-enabled computers in the world have a place in BlueCava's repository. Norris claims that when presented with a query from a machine already in the database, the software can recognise its source 99.5 per cent of the time....

and RE: facebook:

"...That changed, however, with the arrival of Facebook. To use the social network, you must register with your real name. Once logged in, everything you do - posting messages, sending messages, tagging photos - is attributed to what, for most users, is their actual, offline identity..."

It is extremely easy to verify a name/birthdate combo. Since many facebook users have provided false info i don't think it's a stretch to imagine that one day these users will log in and find a "verify" screen, demanding they either cough up their real identity or have their page closed. Time will tell...

many sites use flash cookies right now that are unaffected by normal cookie blockers, the reader might want to search their C drive for *.sol the extension used by these flash cookies. I've seen computers with 4 year old .sol files and they have been tracking all that time...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_cookies

[starroute]

11. There is a Firefox extension, BetterPrivacy, to handle flash cookies

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/betterprivacy/

[Exultant Democracy]

6. Our grandchildren will speak of privacy the way we do of the gramophone

It is already more of an illusion then a reality.

[Fumesucker]

7. Government officials handed over their passwords?

The problem there is moronic officials who have never heard of a Nigerian prince.

What a stupid example.

[dipsydoodle]

8. Is that a problem ?

:shrug:

[court jester]

9. If anonyminity was prohibited on the net it would be a problem, yes

at least for some

Concealment of identity

A pseudonym may be used to protect the writer for exposé books about espionage or crime. Former SAS soldier Andy McNab used a pseudonym for his book about a failed SAS mission titled Bravo Two Zero. The name Ibn Warraq has been used by dissident Muslim authors. Author Brian O'Nolan used the pen names Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen for his novels and journalistic writing from the 1940s to the 1960s because Irish civil servants were not allowed at that time to publish works under their own names. The identity of the enigmatic twentieth century novelist B. Traven has never been conclusively revealed, in spite of thorough research...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen_names

I will not be tracked or monitored without my permission. Other people may not mind that, fine.
Perhaps one day a thumbprint or iris scan will be required to access the net. What could go wrong with that?

[SomethingFishy]

17. "I will not be tracked or monitored without my permission"

Really? Too late friend. Everything you do is tracked and filed away in case they need it. Every time you log onto the internet. Every purchase you make without cash. Every time you use that discount card at the grocery store. Every red light you stop at. Every mall or store you shop in. Every letter you send.

If you mind being tracked without your permission you need to fall off the grid.

There was a Senator, I forget who, but he came out of top secret meetings on the extension of the Patriot Act, saying if the American people knew what was being done to them in secret there would be riots in the streets.

All anyone has to do is even mention that you might have, some time in the past, actually spoken to a person who is now considered a terrorist and your life is over. No lawyers, no courts, no rights.

We live in a police state. It's a nice, quiet, secret police state but it's a police state none the less...

[JoeyT]

16. Yes, it is.

Imagine living in a right wing state where any support for any progressive or liberal politicians or legislation can result in termination. Or living in the deep south where openly admitting to being the wrong religion can get you fired. (Technically you can't be fired for that, but they also don't have to give a reason.) And that's just work related stuff. Right wingers get stupid about politics, especially in places where they're in the majority.

Gay or atheist but don't want to come out to your relatives and employer? Either you'll never be able to speak of it, or you'll do so anonymously on the internet.

Anonymity is crucial to freedom of speech.

[slay]

10. They will use the bad behavior of a few as an excuse to punish and monitor the rest of us

we should be all be punished for the bad behavior of a few? i don't want people being able to track me on the internet. where will the line be drawn as to what is considered "wrong" then and who will be the punishers and how? 1984 here we come (are?). ugh.

[starroute]

14. A lack of anonymity would create more bullying than it ends

I believe a lot of the problems attributed to online anonymity could be addressed through the use of persistent identities, like we have here at DU. That enables people to use a variety of online identities, each with its own purposes and shielded from potential harassment, but also each with a reputation to keep up and a risk of being banned for inappropriate behavior.

As nearly as I can tell, this sudden push to outlaw anonymity entirely is nothing but a ploy on the part of corporations who see the internet as a way of selling stuff and are driven nuts by people whose identities they can't bundle up and sell to marketers.

[bemildred]

15. Sounds like an opportunity for someone to write spoofing software and history cleaners and stuff.

We could have an arms race going before we know it.

[apocalypsehow]

18. In places where large numbers of obvious disruptor's gather on DU, like the gun dungeon or 9-11

forum, I think it would be fascinating to see this software put to use. I'd wager the result would lead to a mass escorting off the premises of a large number of current posters from both forums.

[seabeyond]

19. i was accused of this just yesterday...sock puppetry. i have been here years.

a real duh, if the person can't figure out something so simple. but i guess it is a good accusation.

i lack in computer ability so much, i dont even know what all this stuff is. so will wait and see.

[Initech]

20. I won't comment on any page that requires me to log into Facebook first.