Is it time to remove anonymity online?

GGizmo

GGizmo

GGizmo

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After reading another story about racist abuse online, is it time that anonymity is removed?

Back in the day I was against removing anonymity. But these days I'm not sure. Sadly people are exploiting it to cause so much trouble that it's becoming more difficult to defend it.

What do you think?
 
I don't think that would be a good idea. But I suspect that these morons could easily be tracked down without compromising everyone else's anonymity. They're not exactly geniuses.
 
Do you want to be tracked for everything and anything? Why not have someone just follow you around all day taking notes on what you're doing? Going to the bathroom, oh hi there... etc.

It's the almost the same thing, where that information can easily be requested and used against you. It can also be exposed in hacks, and used against you.

The reality is, if banks and Police can't be bothered to track down all the fraudsters out there, I highly doubt 'casual racists' are gonna be bothered with.
 
Most of these idiots can be tracked even if they think they are being clever with some basic VPN use. You have to really know what you're doing to make yourself completely anonymous online.
 
I'm going to play devil's advocate here, especially for the Savills chap, and say - is there some kind of foul play here?

The first step to link people's real identities with their digital personas is good authentication and authorisation - the main websites have nothing of the sort.

I don't doubt a whole bunch of these accounts are compromised in one way or another, and they are deployed at opportune moments?

It just seems out of character for this particular individual. I don't doubt how stupid people can be, but something felt 'odd' about that particular tweet.

On a totally unrelated note, I also worry that if we don't forgive sins we will end up with standards that qualify out a huge amount of competent people in positions of power.
 
Unless they're using anonymous/multiple VPN's they can be tracked its why the govt passed laws that required ISP's to keep track of who's using IP's at any given time and why sites keep logs of such.

In anycase these idiots aren't too bright to start with so its a non sequiter.
 
No it's time to enforce it and remove social media and all the places which demand real details.

Blackjack Davy said:
Unless they're using anonymous/multiple VPN's they can be tracked its why the govt passed laws that required ISP's to keep track of who's using IP's at any given time and why sites keep logs of such.

In anycase these idiots aren't too bright to start with so its a non sequiter.
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The good VPNs don't keep logs which can link users to activity, so once it hits their servers you can't follow it back to someone.
 
Anonymity allows people to speak up more, to be themselves. In most cases this is a good, in a few it is bad. It's one of the great things about the internet.

But I don't think anyone is truly anonymous online. Not unless you're behind seven proxies.
 
The thing is the major players already know who you are.

the likes of facebook and twitter could fairly easily lock down platforms to one person one account and in all honesty that is the way things are going regardless if we want it or not.

Everything you say and do online will follow you around forever and push more and more people out of society and breeds extremism.
 
BowdonUK said:
After reading another story about racist abuse online, is it time that anonymity is removed?

Back in the day I was against removing anonymity. But these days I'm not sure. Sadly people are exploiting it to cause so much trouble that it's becoming more difficult to defend it.

What do you think?
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I think that just because you dislike someone's views it doesn't mean you should remove their anonymity.
Thats what leads to putting them in the gulag.

Plus some people are so thick they seem to find insults and offense where there aren't any, and likewise racism where it doesn't exist. Unfortunately some of these people will take action based upon that without full understanding.
 
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Hard to prove who did what online unless you have them on camera pushing the buttons.
People get hacked, someone else in you house might have used your account without you knowing.
 
Nasher said:
The good VPNs don't keep logs which can link users to activity, so once it hits their servers you can't follow it back to someone.
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ISP's will log which IP you connect to though, which could certainly help to narrow it down if they ask them which subscribers were connected to this VPN IP address at this time. You'd want at a minimum to be double hopping through 2 no logs VPN servers.
 
Domi said:
The thing is the major players already know who you are.

the likes of facebook and twitter could fairly easily lock down platforms to one person one account and in all honesty that is the way things are going regardless if we want it or not.

Everything you say and do online will follow you around forever and push more and more people out of society and breeds extremism.
Click to expand...

There will be one of these days if not years and decades to come that The Matrix will be very close to reality.
 
Why should the state and other people have an automatic right to know anyone elses details? If a law has been broken then a judge should decide whether the media company should release their details or not. My starting point is a right to privacy, and exposure of details is the exception rather than the rule (e.g. when ordered by a judge).
 
Hades said:
Why should the state and other people have a right to know anyone elses details? If a law has been broken then a judge should decide whether the media company should release their details or not. My starting point is an automatic right to privacy and exposure of details is the exception (e.g. when ordered by a judge).
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The challenge is for the latter to be effective, a variant of the former has to be true (i.e. you must leave a fingerprint).
 
Hades said:
Why should the state and other people have an automatic right to know anyone elses details? If a law has been broken then a judge should decide whether the media company should release their details or not. My starting point is a right to privacy, and exposure of details is the exception rather than the rule (e.g. when ordered by a judge).
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There is hardly any consequences today for horrible actions.
 
no, people just need to learn that the **** that gets said to/about them online via anonymous accounts can, and indeed should, be completely ignored.

people seem to act sometimes like the internet invented [insert bad thing], it didn't, all the internet has done is hold up a magnifying glass to the **** humanity always did, and will always continue to do.
 
Really difficult question. That it's so easy to create email addresses and therefore accounts online and post hateful comments is a concern. That it's so easy to create email addresses and therefore speak truth to power is fabulous.

Anonymity online is necessary but laws on hate speech, libel and fraud need to be enforced. We are lucky here that anyone could (and still can) go to Speakers Corner and say whatever they like. That free speech is enshrined in our laws and protected. That political views are largely accepted unless they incite violence.

Yet, the abhorrent personal abuse that exists online to people like the England players or women politicians (etc. etc.) is enabled by the perception of anonymity.
 
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