Online Anonymity (How Safe)

[thehorse13]

That's because they cannot tell you how to operate your business. There were no laws dictating how to log.

Well - As Bill Clinton said, what's your definition of Anonymity?

Here is how I define it:

an·o·nym·i·ty ( P ) Pronunciation Key (n-nm-t)
n. pl. an·o·nym·i·ties
The quality or state of being unknown or unacknowledged.
One that is unknown or unacknowledged.

anonymity

n : the state of being anonymous

But you could get very reasonable amount of anonymity taking certain precautions couldn't you? Say like using a new wifi card in a lappy on a liveboot cd and a free hotspot? Would that create damn near perfect anonmity? Long as you avoided going to the same spot all the time and using a different nic to log on @ home or anywhere else.

Yep, you can take steps to do so such as these but they do not guarantee that you won't be snagged. There are proven techniques to catch sneaky bitches who do just what you have described. Sorry, can't tell ya.

[jinxy]

Yep, you can take steps to do so such as these but they do not guarantee that you won't be snagged. There are proven techniques to catch sneaky bitches who do just what you have described. Sorry, can't tell ya.

CCTV

You'd be lucky to find a hotspot in this country that isn't watched by big bro

[gauravjulka]

TOR works, in particular, the key exchange & routing, and you will soon understand why this is not foolproof

"This is experimental software. Do not rely on it for stong anonimity"

Well... Given the fact that all the nodes encrypt the msgs and send it across to other node.. Each node only knows about the node which sent it the packets and to whom it is sending.... Also in TOR documentation ... as the number of nodes/servers and users grows, the degree of anonimity grows as well.. Though not 100% foolproof.. This type of routing technique seems to be having potential to provide high degree of anonimity.

Online anonymity is nearly impossible. I believe the closest we will ever get to it is Freenet...

Technology will keep on maturing with time but the success of a particular technology is directly implied by its social repercussions.

But why is anonymity necessary?
You cannot have freedom of speech without the option to remain anonymous. Most censorship is retrospective, it is generally much easier to curtail free speech by punishing those who exercise it afterward, rather than preventing them from doing it in the first place. The only way to prevent this is to remain anonymous. It is a common misconception that you cannot trust anonymous information. This is not necessarily true, using digital signatures people can create a secure anonymous pseudonym which, in time, people can learn to trust. Freenet incorporates a mechanism called "subspaces" to facilitate this.

http://freenet.sourceforge.net/index...age=philosophy

"I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she's too young to have logged on yet. Here's what I worry about. I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, she will come to me and say 'Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?'"
--Mike Godwin, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Despite all the opinions expressed. ... the highpoint is there are many positive aspects of remaining anonimous like escaping censorship and freedom to put ur viewpoint across without the fear of getting caught ....

The question is whether this point suggests that the initiatives like Freenet and TOR be pursued and researched with greater vigour and their positive points outweigh the negatives... Lets think a bit broader while talking technology...