PCMAG.com
October 10, 2007
by Sascha Segan

We need less anonymity on the Internet. And we need more privacy. And the two should go together.

Meanwhile, you may have a false anonymity, but you have no privacy—not from Google's database of Web searches, private addresses, and phone numbers, nor from goverment agencies' searches of your ISP's records. False anonymity leads to a complacency where we forget that we don't have privacy where it really counts—because we're able to act like idiots in front of strangers who don't matter. You may think you can pretend to be somebody else on the Internet, but the Department of Homeland Security doesn't see the distinction between you and your cyber-self.

Real privacy would help the people who actually need to be anonymous on the Net: corporate whistle-blowers, teenagers seeking advice from Planned Parenthood, that sort of thing.

So, minors need "real privacy" when going behind their parents' backs? Bad example... the corporate whistle-blowers made the point well enough. That aside, Segan has some interesting points, although I think he sees anonymity as a larger problem than it really is.

On the Web: Less Anonymity, More Privacy