On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Barney Wolff wrote:
A pseudonym that I can give up at will and that can never afterwards be traced to me is equivalent to an anonym.
Actually, I don't have a problem with it being traced afterwards, if a crime has been committed and there's a search warrant or equivalent to trace it in order to further the investigation of a specific crime. And that's a pseudonym, not anonymity. My problem is that if merchant's information is easily linkable, or if several merchants have access to the same linkable field, then privacy is out the window. It's reasonable for a merchant to know every deal I've ever done with him (pseudonymity). It's not reasonable for a merchant to know nothing at all about my past dealings with anyone including himself (anonymity) nor for a merchant to know every deal I've done in my life, with everyone (marketing databases based on linkable ID's). Ray