With the recent news about Facebook downloading all your history using its cookies after each log on, which I'm sure you're all aware of now, I figured it was time for a discussion on internet anonymity.

With Google tracking what you do and Facebook tracking every site you visit, even while you're not logged on, these huge corporations know about everything you do online, whether it's simply you refreshing SEN 8000 times a day, or your dodgy porn, or you visiting antiwar sites, antigovernment sites, sites discussing drugs, whatever slightly suspicious sites you may visit. Ok, so maybe google and facebook won't do anything with that information other than deliver targeted ad services. Or maybe they'll do more. Selling user information is a lucrative business. Some of your information might end up publicly accessible on google plus or facebook even though you don't want it to be. What about if a government demands that google and/or facebook give them all their user information on the grounds of 'the war on terrorism"? You might end up going on a federal watchlist just because of the websites you visit (gogo big brother!) You could not get the job you wanted because of publicly accessible information about you and your past actions which your prospective employer finds, even though what you did might have been ten years ago, or even someone impersonating you.

So other than all this doom and gloom, what do you all think about internet anonymity? Should we all have an internet ID which corresponds with our real name and address, and is linked to everything we do? Or should we be allowed as much anonymity as we want? And what about facebook tracking everything you do on the internet? Even blizzard and their warden tracks what processes are running on your PC; maybe they track more than that too.

I don't know, and don't want to discuss, the way things "should be". But I believe that within the next few years, there will be a independent identity for when a person is online. It will link into your Google account for Google websites, Facebook account for Facebook websites, and Live account for Microsoft websites. Right now, I'd guess that Facebook would be the one to achieve this, but I could be wrong. Microsoft or Google or someone else can likely push through a standard to achieve this. Further down the line, I believe the government will introduce some regulations about this E-account, and at some point in the future, anonymity won't be a major issue, as there won't be any, as the internet becomes more curated.

I'm alright with this. If our content was posted under our real names, there'd be a lot less stupid shit on the internet.

Centy is completely right on the subject. Anonymity allows people to do stupid stuff with usually no real penalty, but however taints the name of anonymity for those who use it for good. It is only a matter of time before we all have some E-account that will be government regulated, and corporate entities own our user names and prevent us the ability of using them as intellectual property, but rather as a form of identification or social security number.

I personally like the idea of facebook connect letting me take the hardship of adding EVERYONE I KNOW EVERY WHERE I GO, into inputting a name and a password, but there should be an off switch for this sort of thing somewhere. I do not believe in regulation of the internet as much as some may want, but I certainly believe people who want it should be allowed to have it. I also personally like the fact that facebook usually posts relevant ads, putting up things that may link to free products, or games that I may wish to try.

I think that once you start using the internet professionally, you want your real identity to show. If you are a programmer for example, and you work on an open source project such as Blender. You will probably want people to know who you really are. (This was a completely random example...)

Still however a good one. It provides information (Your name) that proves you are willing enough to show your face when presenting your project, and not being anonymous and perhaps stealing something. The less anonymity you have on the internet it seams, the better or professional you look.

I'd post a few papers I've written on the subject, however, I am trying to get them published, so I'd rather not have them appear on an Internet forum right now. The main arguments I had for the use of Internet anonymity were as follows:

Internet anonymity provides users with the ability to express their true self without any sort of repercussions. And while many will say that this is a bad thing, it is not inherently bad. By separating the user from what they are saying, the user is allowed to be a lot more open with their feelings and they will ask questions they would never ask if they new their name would be known. (In my paper, I cite these claims with some scientific studies, however, I do not have them memorized, so, please note that the studies demonstrated that users are a lot more willing to divulge personal information such as feelings and past experiences if they are anonymous).

Yet another pro of Internet anonymity is the ability to try new things without feeling compelled by society to behave in a certain way. I personally think this is very important to people trying to find a new way of expressing themselves without being hindered by any failures they might encounter. The art (in any form: writing, pictures, photos, drawings, etc) is taken for what it is and not tied to any other art that the user has done -- thus allowing honest feedback.

And finally, anonymity forces users to take content for its value, no the value of the speaker. This is an important point since it was shown (yet another study I do not remember) that users will take the value of information from the person or entity it comes from; however, this association is removed once anonymity is introduced. Suddenly, the information holds no association with any speaker, and thus must be valued for its content.

And so... yeah. There a bunch of cons I can list as well, but I bet you guys will point those out eventually.