11 ms·

Anonymity online, one of the most important problems of the coming decades. Even if you don't think it's important to be anonymous to the eyes of the governmen

by acabal 14y ago

Anonymity online, one of the most important problems of the coming decades. Even if you don't think it's important to be anonymous to the eyes of the government, being anonymous to the eyes of drive-by troll litigants is almost undoubtedly a good thing. (And I think drive-by litigation powered by increasingly easy access to information is only going to be getting worse.)

betterunix 14y ago
"Anonymity online, one of the most important problems of the coming decades" ...and a solved problem. We have numerous technologies for this.
- pavel_lishin 14y ago
  That's like saying that drunk driving is a solved problem because we have breathalyzers, seat belts and airbags.
- martinced 14y ago
  It's not really "solved" as long as the technologies are too complicated to use for the regular user. It's good that the legal framework allowing anonymity is already in place in some countries (like Germany and... Even the EU seems to be going in this direction) but technically it's complicated. I don't expect regular people to know how to connect to free public WiFi hotspots and then to use Tor and browser(s) able to dodge Panopticlick-like detection anytime soon. This may come at one point but we're not there yet and we probably won't be there anywhere soon seen that there are big governments out there determined to crush for fun and profit the very notion of anonimity.
  - eksith 14y ago
    Germany is still a complicated case since, even though they value anonymity and privacy, they're by and large quite happy to prosecute for infringement. And the threshold for that infringement is still a bit murky. That's not to say, I condone piracy, but we have far too many cases of people being punished for fair use and/or disproportionately. Using Tor has now become fairly straightforward with the Browser Bundle and I expect similar packages to be available for mobile devices soon.
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    Another big obstacle is that there is no way to run tor on iOS without a jailbreak.
- sneak 14y ago
  This is absolutely false. There is no good way to cheaply host a high-traffic site anonymously right now.
  - wwwtyro 14y ago
    Much less use it to make money anonymously.
  - Karunamon 14y ago
    How do you figure? Hosting providers exist out there that accept bitcoin right now. With that one crucial link between you and the hosting provider severed, i.e. who's paying for it, what's left to link the server to your identity?
    - eis 14y ago
      Bitcoin is not anonymous. Too many people make this wrong assumption. It's the least anonymous currency/payment system I've ever seen. After all every single transaction is public. Of course it depends on who is trying to get the data about you. If it's the hoster then yea, he wont get it. But if it's the authorities/government then they'll get it. Plus theres a chance of you by accident exposing all your payments with your name...
      - icarus_drowning 14y ago
        Anonymity is different though. Every single transaction is public, yes, but that only leads you to a bitcoin address, which is trivial to change. Perhaps there's a way to unmask them (even if you are smart about changing your "bitcoin identity"), but it is far more anonymous than many other options.
        sp332 14y ago
        If you open a new wallet, it has no money. Any transfer you make from your old wallet to the new one is public and trivially traceable. It's not anonymous to anyone who puts 5 minutes work into tracing you.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
rayiner 14y ago
Why is anonymity online so important? We have never had the amount of anonymity we do today. Being able to communicate to large numbers of people while remaining anonymous was something that was just not that practical before the internet. Society functioned just fine then. So why is it so important now? Not that I support what this troll is doing of course. But I fail to see why a start of affairs that basically only existed for a small group of people from 1970-2000 is so crucial to civilization now that the internet is just an extension of real life and not a playground for the technological elite.
- jlgreco 14y ago
  I take it you have been fortunate enough to never have to deal with online stalking/harassment that made the jump to meatspace. Perhaps it is that experience that has rendered the status quo unable to satiate. "The needs of society" can kindly go stuff itself, I need anonymity.
- drcube 14y ago
  Anonymity has always been easier than it is now. Before sophisticated record keeping, you were anonymous to any stranger or new acquaintance. Moving to a new town was an opportunity to become a new person. Anything you published could be pseudonymous or anonymous. Letters and phone calls were essentially anonymous, unless you specifically announced your identity. With modern technology, all that is slipping away, or already gone.
  - wglb 14y ago
    I am wondering if you ever lived in a small town. There was no real anonymity.
    - bluntly_said 14y ago
      This misses his point entirely. Sure, everyone in a small town knows each other, but it used to be that when you moved to a NEW small town (or anywhere else for that matter), almost nothing followed you. You could re-invent yourself, move past old failures. Now you have a constant and easily accessible record of your life online, which anyone can look up. There is no space you can go to that people can't easily find records of who you used to be. THAT is a loss of anonymity.

by acabal 14y ago

betterunix 14y ago

"Anonymity online, one of the most important problems of the coming decades" ...and a solved problem. We have numerous technologies for this.

pavel_lishin 14y ago
That's like saying that drunk driving is a solved problem because we have breathalyzers, seat belts and airbags.
martinced 14y ago
It's not really "solved" as long as the technologies are too complicated to use for the regular user. It's good that the legal framework allowing anonymity is already in place in some countries (like Germany and... Even the EU seems to be going in this direction) but technically it's complicated. I don't expect regular people to know how to connect to free public WiFi hotspots and then to use Tor and browser(s) able to dodge Panopticlick-like detection anytime soon. This may come at one point but we're not there yet and we probably won't be there anywhere soon seen that there are big governments out there determined to crush for fun and profit the very notion of anonimity.
- eksith 14y ago
  Germany is still a complicated case since, even though they value anonymity and privacy, they're by and large quite happy to prosecute for infringement. And the threshold for that infringement is still a bit murky. That's not to say, I condone piracy, but we have far too many cases of people being punished for fair use and/or disproportionately. Using Tor has now become fairly straightforward with the Browser Bundle and I expect similar packages to be available for mobile devices soon.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Another big obstacle is that there is no way to run tor on iOS without a jailbreak.
sneak 14y ago
This is absolutely false. There is no good way to cheaply host a high-traffic site anonymously right now.
- wwwtyro 14y ago
  Much less use it to make money anonymously.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  How do you figure? Hosting providers exist out there that accept bitcoin right now. With that one crucial link between you and the hosting provider severed, i.e. who's paying for it, what's left to link the server to your identity?
  - eis 14y ago
    Bitcoin is not anonymous. Too many people make this wrong assumption. It's the least anonymous currency/payment system I've ever seen. After all every single transaction is public. Of course it depends on who is trying to get the data about you. If it's the hoster then yea, he wont get it. But if it's the authorities/government then they'll get it. Plus theres a chance of you by accident exposing all your payments with your name...
    - icarus_drowning 14y ago
      Anonymity is different though. Every single transaction is public, yes, but that only leads you to a bitcoin address, which is trivial to change. Perhaps there's a way to unmask them (even if you are smart about changing your "bitcoin identity"), but it is far more anonymous than many other options.
      - sp332 14y ago
        If you open a new wallet, it has no money. Any transfer you make from your old wallet to the new one is public and trivially traceable. It's not anonymous to anyone who puts 5 minutes work into tracing you.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

rayiner 14y ago

Why is anonymity online so important? We have never had the amount of anonymity we do today. Being able to communicate to large numbers of people while remaining anonymous was something that was just not that practical before the internet. Society functioned just fine then. So why is it so important now? Not that I support what this troll is doing of course. But I fail to see why a start of affairs that basically only existed for a small group of people from 1970-2000 is so crucial to civilization now that the internet is just an extension of real life and not a playground for the technological elite.

jlgreco 14y ago
I take it you have been fortunate enough to never have to deal with online stalking/harassment that made the jump to meatspace. Perhaps it is that experience that has rendered the status quo unable to satiate. "The needs of society" can kindly go stuff itself, I need anonymity.
drcube 14y ago
Anonymity has always been easier than it is now. Before sophisticated record keeping, you were anonymous to any stranger or new acquaintance. Moving to a new town was an opportunity to become a new person. Anything you published could be pseudonymous or anonymous. Letters and phone calls were essentially anonymous, unless you specifically announced your identity. With modern technology, all that is slipping away, or already gone.
- wglb 14y ago
  I am wondering if you ever lived in a small town. There was no real anonymity.
  - bluntly_said 14y ago
    This misses his point entirely. Sure, everyone in a small town knows each other, but it used to be that when you moved to a NEW small town (or anywhere else for that matter), almost nothing followed you. You could re-invent yourself, move past old failures. Now you have a constant and easily accessible record of your life online, which anyone can look up. There is no space you can go to that people can't easily find records of who you used to be. THAT is a loss of anonymity.