Is it time to remove anonymity online?

I'm indifferent. I'd prefer the anonymity but I've nothing, for the most part, to hide. Never said anything online that I'd be ashamed to read out in front of a group of people.
 
V F said:
There is hardly any consequences today for horrible actions.
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Act like an idiot and get a selfie with a Government advisor and everyone throws you under the bus for a few seconds of drunken silliness. Peoples lives are being ruined on a daily basis for stupid infractions that in past generations would have been let pass and people would have been embarrassed and learnt a lesson. remove anonymity and we're now is a World of self censorship lest the Offendosphere destroy you with it's mob pile on. Heavens be praised I grew up in a less judgemental era.
 
Junglist said:
I'm indifferent. I'd prefer the anonymity but I've nothing, for the most part, to hide. Never said anything online that I'd be ashamed to read out in front of a group of people.
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That's what a lot of people thought when they said things in the 1980's, 90's, etc. Now footage of them voicing what were totally acceptable opinions back then, but certainly not acceptable today, can ruin careers and lives. So you might not be worried about anything you've said recently but there is no guarantee that in 10 or 20 years time those words will be viewed as so innocent.
 
Junglist said:
I'm indifferent. I'd prefer the anonymity but I've nothing, for the most part, to hide. Never said anything online that I'd be ashamed to read out in front of a group of people.
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The problem is that they can make stuff up and it's impossible to undo that.

The sites that publish this stuff should be accountable for what they publish.
 
Hades said:
That's what a lot of people thought when they said things in the 1980's, 90's, etc. Now footage of them voicing what were totally acceptable opinions back then, but certainly not acceptable today, can ruin careers and lives. So you might not be worried about anything you've said recently but there is no guarantee that in 10 or 20 years time those words will be viewed as so innocent.
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Not only that bit things can be misrepresented, misconstrued and misunderstood.
 
Hades said:
That's what a lot of people thought when they said things in the 1980's, 90's, etc. Now footage of them voicing what were totally acceptable opinions back then, but certainly not acceptable today, can ruin careers and lives. So you might not be worried about anything you've said recently but there is no guarantee that in 10 or 20 years time those words will be viewed as so innocent.
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I'm careful with what I say online. Of course they could dig up my twitter history moaning at Talk-Talk and Three on twitter but that'd about all that is on there!

edit: Just adding I would rather keep the anonymity but if that veil was lifted tomorrow, I'd have no fear.
 
Hades said:
Horrible actions such as...?
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Rape/death threats, stalking, libel. A lot of things get tolerated unless you're relatively high profile. Or unless it has lead to murder. But sadly not a great deal of things improve from the law and consequences for other people's murders. Or in other cases things from online harassment that has lead to suicide.
 
Junglist said:
I'm careful with what I say online. Of course they could dig up my twitter history moaning at Talk-Talk and Three on twitter but that'd about all that is on there!
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You might be careful, but that doesn't remove stupidity or malice on the part of others.
 
If you can't take insults from an anonymous random person with no name, a fake/random profile pic and someone you'll never ever meet then perhaps using social media is not for you.

These 'celebs' are all too happy to take all the positive views, the likes, the follows etc but the moment they are criticised / insulted etc they cry foul and run to the media to protect them. There will always be internet trolls or people who use the platform to get at other people. Tough luck! I'm amazed anyone would take such comments to heart.

A large part of why the internet is so good is that it is largely anonymous with a freedom of expression.
 
DeliciousStorage said:
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.
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That isn't any use as 1000s of people will be using the same IP provided by the VPN. All with no logs, so there is no way to say who it was.

VPN connections are secure enough that the government uses them to send secret information.
 
Nasher said:
That isn't any use as 1000s of people will be using the same IP provided by the VPN. All with no logs, so there is no way to say who it was.

VPN connections are secure enough that the government uses them to send secret information.
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Private VPN =! the nonsense you buy for a quid a month online.
 
Stumble Bum said:
If you can't take insults from an anonymous random person with no name, a fake/random profile pic and someone you'll never ever meet then perhaps using social media is not for you.

These 'celebs' are all too happy to take all the positive views, the likes, the follows etc but the moment they are criticised / insulted etc they cry foul and run to the media to protect them. There will always be internet trolls or people who use the platform to get at other people. Tough luck! I'm amazed anyone would take such comments to heart.

A large part of why the internet is so good is that it is largely anonymous with a freedom of expression.
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We've got a real comedian here.
 
MookJong said:
Real details required to register, but hidden from others online.
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This is probably the most sensible compromise if you were to go down that route.

The issue you get with trying to legislate this sort of thing is it's all very well telling your own citizens they have to register etc. but you can't force the rest of the world to do it without starting to restrict access to things in one direction or another.
 
Nasher said:
You can have more than 1 server on the same IP and some providers have more users per server.
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All VPN servers have a different IP address on this particular VPN provider. In any case, you narrowed it down from billions to a couple of hundred at best. It really depends on the severity of the crime as to how much effort they put into tracking you down, but don't automatically assume you're safe with a simple VPN setup.
 
V F said:
Rape/death threats, stalking, libel. A lot of things get tolerated unless you're relatively high profile. Or unless it has lead to murder. But sadly not a great deal of things improve from the law and consequences for other people's murders. Or in other cases things from online harassment that has lead to suicide.
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All of those can be reported today either to the police for follow up or through civil action. If the CPS believe there is sufficient evidence then they can request logs from the ISP and media providers. No new controls are needed to prosecute those.
 
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