I'm not sure the chilling effect you speak of is that big: it's personal information that you must not disseminate. I think one can engage in political discuss

I'm not sure the chilling effect you speak of is that big: it's personal information that you must not disseminate. I think one can engage in political discussions without revealing anything else than their opinions, which aren't personally identifiable in most cases. Edit: and then there's stylometry, which may prevent one to say anything… sigh.