“We need less anonymity on the Internet. And we need more privacy. And the two
should go together.” (Segan, 2007)
With the growing popularity of the Internet, privacy can be a huge concern and so can anonymity. In essence everyone should be able to write anything he or she wishes with a guaranteed level of anonymity if they so choose; that is, not being able to link it back to the person who wrote it – protecting anonymity. Likewise, everyone should be able to retract words they posted thereby protecting privacy (after all they wrote it). I think that these two items should be compatible in most online communication even though many times they don’t seem to be implemented all that well or at all. Take for instance Facebook. Users too often don’t know how to tighten down their privacy while using it and a lot of the users simply think that somehow their postings can be anonymous simply because they wish it so. Inherently, anything that is posted on the Internet should be treated as entirely searchable (most if not all is), and privacy online should be handled with extreme care.
References:
Segan, S. (2007). Less Anonymity, More Privacy. PC Magazine, 26 (21/22), 63.
4 comments:
Great post. I do agree with you on how privacy and anonymity should go hand in hand. If privacy is being so largely protected then so should anonymity. So often does a post get written anonymously and then traced back to it's originator. How is privacy being protected in that sense? It's not.
You bring up a good question is Internet Privacy and Anonymity an oxymoron? I would have to say yes, these two terms do not typically go hand and hand together. People often post inappropriate postings; I think that people should be held accountable for the words that are post. Now the question is how do we create a link between internet privacy and anonymity to protect us?
Angela L
In my opinion, Internet Privacy and Anonymity is not necessarily an Oxymoron, but nor does it come hand in hand. I disagree with this post, in that even though we have free speech doesn’t mean we should not be held accountable for what we say, therefore I believe it is a good thing to be able to track back to the person who wrote something. For example, online child predators, hackers, and identity thieves would love not to be tracked back to.
As for the comment on retracting comments posted by a person, I guess I can go both ways on this subject. For example, I posted on Facebook how much I disliked my job, but then forgot I was connected to one of the people I work with, I was happy I was able to delete my comment.
I agree with anonymous (Angela L). Internet privacy and anonymity do not go hand in hand. Not only should there not be that kind of protection for online predators, but what about threats and bullies? With anonymity some people feel they can write anything and there are no consequences. Some comments should have consequences.
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