Anonymity Online

A recent article “Death of Anonymity Online Has Net Users Fuming” was an eye opener for the future of being anonymous online.  Another article by Lauren Fisher delves deeper into the complexity of the online anonymity debate, “Should We Allow Anonymity Online?”  and is also great reading.

It seems that anonymity on social network sites may be changing.  Users of Google+ (Google’s new social network site to rival Facebook) seem to be having difficulty in being able to using pseudonyms or mononyms (one word names) when signing up.  This is a controversial issue that is becoming more significant as we increasingly hand over our data to these sites.

There are reasons for and against anonymity online.  Being anonymous allows all to communicate freely, which may not occur if identities have to be revealed.  It promotes the right to free speech particularly for those who are afraid or who can’t be open and honest by using their real name.  There is also an element of privacy to be able to contribute to conversation without people knowing who you are.

On the other hand, there is the issue of law enforcement.  It is argued that less criminal behaviour would be committed online if individuals had to use their real names.  This is slightly unconvincing as in the offline world people still engage in criminal behaviour using their real names.  This occurs because not all people are law abiding.  Law enforcement agencies are still able to track down people using pseudonyms as technology is able to support this.  Anyone with the right skill set can trace someone through their IP address (if they are not using Internet cafes) so it is not as difficult as it seems.

There is a school of thought that says having anonymity online is dangerous and everyone needs to reveal his or her identities.  This assumes that people who want to remain anonymous online want to engage in criminal activity otherwise why would they what to be anonymous.  There are valid reasons why some people want to remain anonymous.  It also, however, presumes that people only have one identity which is not the case.  How people behave at home is not how they act at work.  There is a distinction and individuals would ideally still like to keep these identities separate.  Forcing people not to have a choice may mean that the move to have no anonymity online may backfire.

It seems to me that the Internet is becoming less about having choices and more about giving up our information to technology giants such as Google and Facebook.  It is in the interest of Internet companies for there to be no anonymity online.  This way they are able to collect and match our information much more easily.  So is having a “real identity” online basically about exploiting our information for more advertising dollars?

I would be interested to hear what your thoughts are.