
The Joy of Handles (1992) - cryowaffle
http://www.textfiles.com/100/anonymit
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cbd1984
It's interesting that this is still controversial. Surely we're all acting as
adults on this medium, and adults have the right to refuse to answer
impertinent and snoopy questions! There's nothing to be gained from knowing
someone's "Real name", however defined (and even governments have a problem
with that one, bureaucratic fiat or no), and therefore it's pointless to
demand it.

Even if you do, surely we've learned by now that any information which can be
transferred via the Internet is rather trivial to fake; all photos, scans, and
other files are subject to being modified and are, therefore, immediately
suspect. (This could be changed, if governments were in the habit of giving
people cryptographically signed documents verifying identity. They're not, and
if they were, woe betide the person idiotic enough to give such documents to
any third party.) Thus, anyone who claims too loudly to be using their real
name is making a bluff which is difficult to call them on, something which
should be kept in mind.

The idea that there are 'consequences' for everyone's actions is central to
some worldviews. The question then becomes, one, Who is in a position to
decide which actions have 'consequences'?, and, two, Who is in a position to
decide which 'consequences' are just? Being anonymous is one layer of
protection against some of the people who take such duties on themselves, as
the paper points out.

~~~
username223
> There's nothing to be gained from knowing someone's "Real name",... Thus,
> anyone who claims too loudly to be using their real name is making a bluff
> which is difficult to call them on...

What? Calling such a bluff is not so hard: with a full name and just a bit
more info (e.g. birth date, partial SSN, mother's maiden name), you're well on
your way to stealing someone's identity. With a full name and forum handle,
you may have blackmail material. If the information is fake, you lose nothing
by trying a dozen "John Smiths." Read Kevin Mitnick's books for how far you
can get with persistence and just a bit of knowledge.

Robustly faking information takes effort; most people are too lazy or careless
to do so every single time they write something online, and the Internet is
Forever. However, handles add a bit of friction to the stalking/surveillance
process, likely enough to prevent idle snooping and bulk collection.

~~~
Retra
Regardless, if you need someone's real name, you should probably meet them in
person anyway.

~~~
username223
And this is why I use Craigslist and not Ebay: it's hard to run a large-scale
scam by meeting people in person.

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bluedino
In the future will anyone be able to run for president without getting
scrutinized for every YouTube comment, Flickr photo, Facebook tag, or forum
post they made in their entire life?

Handles are great but these days it's too easy to track people down, even if
they use multiples.

