In the article
A Technical Guide to Anonymous Blogging, Ethan Zuckerman writes about strategies you can use to keep your identity a secret online.
For many nonprofits, this type of security may not be necessary, but for others, remaining anonymous can be life-saving. Share your thoughts on the topic here.
Joined on 03-21-2001
Los Angeles
Your query has lain as if unrecognized, but not unappreciated. It deserves a response.
I think it is interesting and important to know about anonymous blogging, regardless of what putative democracy one lives in. Many of the techniques are valuable for non-bloggers, too, to protect privacy. In the U.S.A., just for example, there are increasing pressures and penalties on journalists who refuse to disclose their sources, and whistleblowers usually face severe hardships before they have a chance of proving their cases, and they may not recover from the hardships even if they do eventually prove their cases. In activities other than blogging there is still the specter of "Total Information Awareness" which was publicly deprecated after public outcry, but is probably still just as vigorous under another name.
I do not know when these privacy measures will seem practical for me. I've always liked the idea of public key encryption and other methods to protect privacy, but have never made any real use of them. Nor have I ever blogged -- it seems that there are too many things to read already and, until I have a message for a large audience, I'll just not contribute to the clutter of the blogosphere.
Now putting my editor's hat on, I point out that your question, "Is the solution Sarah chose..." assumes we know what she chose. You did not tell us exactly how Ann Onymous chose to pursue her project. I also think that maybe TOR (The Onion Router), the last tool you mentioned, would be a logical starting point, and would make subsequent steps safer. Isn't TOR available with a Firefox browser that can be loaded from a USB drive?
Torpark available
here. (It
seems that it is available only for Windows.) That could enhance security by covering one's tracks on public or shared computers.
Perhaps the other end to this question is... Does anyone give credence to an anonymous blog?
Right or wrong, if a blog is anonymous it's doubtful I would read it in the first place; less than likely I would believe any of the content even if I were to extend the energy to peruse it.
Maybe this comes from living in a free country where openness and truth are valued. I concede there could be legitimate reason for people hiding an identity behind a blog, I just don't think many other people would take the time to read it and/or give much value to the content posted.
How do others feel?
Cheers, Don
Joined on 03-21-2001
Los Angeles
Donc has a good point about credibility. But if you think you would not read an "anonymous" blog, then do you actually know the identity of the bloggers you do read? Does anyone usually try to "verify" blogger identities? How does a blogger get credibility? I cannot speak from experience, since I don't read a lot of blogs, but I guess that credibility does not usually come from having a famous name.
While it is true that anonymous sources pose credibility questions, unfortunately many identifiable sources do as well. Whistle-blowers shouldn't be discouraged from speaking up for fear that no one will believe them, and for some, anonymous blogging is one of the few ways they can do so without entirely risking their own safety.
Just because we may not personally haven't faced persecution in our own coutry we can't automatically assume it is free and open to everyone. I'm sure the prisoners held in the CIA's secret prisons and Abu Ghraib, as well as the victims of Plamegate and those denied habeus corpus would say that this country still has a long way to go toward freedom and openness.
Hi Jesse, Wcook and all on this thread
As far as practicable I do verify the authenticity of authors of any blogs that I choose read, although in truth I read very few preferring forums (instead of blogs) where opinion can be challenged and other people's opinions added to the mix. (I'm not very good at listening to people on a soap-box either - :-)
Wcook IMO your points have substance, although of course we cannot presume that just because someone writes of atrocities on a blog, that said atrocities do in fact exist... A blog is just commentary, as likely to be accurate and unbiased as inaccurate and biased. All things in balance.
Also... anyone who believes a blog post is truly anonymous (especially when posted from a country likely to engage in human atrocities), is being badly misled - this is the danger of suggesting that anyone can achieve a degree of safety by posting to any blog anonymously - All posts can be traced.
PS - Without wishing to generate controversy, the country I referred to previously is not the US, although I concede my own country also has its share of ills.
Cheers, Don
Joined on 12-23-2006
TechSoup Member
I agree that i wouldn't add to the blogoshere clutter because there is so much to read out there but having thought of it I might add the obvious that in public internet sites one might be advised to be aware of any camera survaillance that most libraries and Universities that I know of have. Personally i don't beleive either that there is anyway to stay annoymous blogging on the internet.
Joined on 08-08-2006
TechSoup Member
There are times when people have information that the public would be better off knowing, but that to openly post that information would be a bad move, personally.
I doubt very much that no one who posted a comment here, saying they do not read anonymous postings, has verified that none of the articles they've read on line were written under a pseudomym. It happens all the time.
The real problem our assistant in the example would have is getting anyone to know the article exists.
She'd have to post links to the article everywhere, and hope that someone picks it up. That's where the tricky part comes in.
It probably wouldn't be so tough to find someone to pay to put the article up, using the techniques listed. It could even be done for hire. Hire a college kid to post a blog entry.
The tricky part would then be posting to bulletin boards, trying to get people to notice the article. That is a very tedious effort, and it would be tempting to short-circuit the process.
I would like to know more about proxy servers, and the technical aspect of this. Never know when it might come in handy!
Joined on 01-07-2007
TechSoup Member
I have two anonymous blogs. They serve their purpose quite well. I found this site looking for a computer program designer. I joined because the first several threads I read showed a deep concern from several members regarding education, self motivation tactics and self help. That is what my blogs are designed for.
You see I was not well loved in my life, especially as a child. As an example of how low my mother considered me, I was sick when I was very young, hospitalized on and off for over 2-1/2 years. When I was eight I had the opportunity to be tested by the local school so that I could be placed in a grade and begin my formal education. Mother would not allow it.
She did not know that a nurse had taught me the alphabet phonetically and that she continued to sneak books to me, as well as an aunt, after I was released.
I have never attended any school, yet I have a certificate as a junior chemist, I am an ordained minister that writes sermons for other ministers and I tutor a few college students that are not writers in creating their thesis'. My blogs are designed to show people that the only limits they have are those they place upon themselves.
Why are my blog anonymous? Because my Mother is still alive. My consideration and treatment of her has no relationship to how I was treated. I am not she, she is not me.
Joined on 11-08-2004
TechSoup Member
inspiration2jms wrote:
Why are my blog anonymous? Because my Mother is still alive. My consideration and treatment of her has no relationship to how I was treated. I am not she, she is not me.
Just remember that America is a sue-happy society. Even blogging anonymously will not protect you if she ever hears of your blog and believes it to be her. Or if someone else reads it, believes it to be them you are writing about. Either way you will have to defend yourself. In the latter case, it would probably be quickly resolved that the person is NOT who you are blogging about, but then there's that "emotional" damage they could go after you on, claiming mental duress while they discovered it was not them you were attacking.
Some of you may be following the story of
Josh Wolf, a blogger who was jailed for refusing to hand over video footage of a protest to a grand jury.
An article in today's San Francisco Chronicle,
Blogger Jailed for Defying Grand Jury Sets Record, reports that Wolf is now the journalist who has been imprisoned the longest in the United States on contempt of court charges.
I think that this case demonstrates the real relevance of the subject of anonymous blogging.
Joined on 11-08-2004
TechSoup Member
Okay, the link didn't seem to work right now for that article. Is the guy a blogger or a journalist? Or a journalist -- someone working in the mainstream media -- who blogs for his employer?
A blogger isn't a journalist unless, of course, that blogger has credentials as a journalist. I spent more than 20 years as an investigative journalist, cops and courts reporter, and covered government to no end. These days, in my "free time" (whatever that is!), I do freelance writing for media outlets.
Joined on 03-21-2001
Los Angeles
This
link has a good discussion about "Achieving Internet Anonymity." The discussion, from a weekly radio program, is provided in MP3 and transcribed in html, text and PDF formats. And there are links to
TOR -- The Onion Router and
Freenet
The expert is Steve Gibson, whose work you should probably know if you're into privacy and computer security; browse the website grc.com.
Joined on 07-07-2007
TechSoup Member
Anyone Interested in in online privacy should utilize privacy services like Ultimate Anonymity http://www.ultimate-anonymity.com using such a service allows one to surf anonymously without revealing personal info to sites you visit. they provide disposable NYMS (email addresses) to use for one time or multiple time uses such as signing up for a new service. Get your access then kill the NYM. You can even purcahse services using disposable anonymous Visa Debit cards setup under any name and address for COMPLETE privacy. Using this method completely emliminates the possibility of identity theft.
You can check out their products directly at http://www.ultimate-anonymity.com/products.htm
Happy surfing
Identity theft can occur in MANY ways. In fact theft from an online source is rare although phishers are becoming a larger issue. The fact is, most identity theft occurs because:
1) people will put sensitive information into the trash.
2) people use a mailbox at the end of the driveway that isn't lockable. The mailbox, can be hit in two ways--theft of incoming mail and theft of outgoing mail.
I wrote a series of posts on Identity theft on my blog. If you are interested, a list of the posts can be found
HERE.