The latest debate about "anonymity" and its hazards is bringing up charges that we Cypherpunks are not taking Esther Dysomn's concerns seriously enough. I strongly disagree. The various downsides of anonymity, pseudonymity/pseudoanonymity, lack of accountability, etc., have been hashed out in literally *thousands* of posts over the past four years! Many of us have written long articles dealing with these issues, and referring in great detail to mechanisms for dealing with "obnoxious speech," "defamatory speech," "anonymous mailbombs," "anonymous threats," etc. Rather than dredge up my own articles, or those of the many others who have addressed most or all of the concerns most often raised, I'll post here one of the subsections from my Cyphernomicon. This is just one of the subsections in the entire _chapter_ devoted to issues of anonymity, mixes, and remailers. (For those not familiar with the style of my Cyphernomicon, I used a powerful outline processor (MORE) to build a skeleton, attach threads and ideas, move things around, clone headings in more than one place, etc. For a large writing project of this sort, an outline processor is almost a necessity. At least for me. The points are often short and are sometimes incomplete; fleshing the whole thing out into well-written expository prose would've taken an additional several months of full-time effort. This form gets the points across.) (A few subsubsections are deleted, to save space.) Cyphernomicon 8.3 Anonymity, Digital Mixes, and Remailers: Anonymity and Digital Pseudonyms 8.3.1. Why is anonymity so important? - It allows escape from past, an often-essential element of straighening out (an important function of the Western frontier, the French Foreign Legion, etc., and something we are losing as the dossiers travel with us wherever we go) - It allows new and diverse types of opinions, as noted below - More basically, anonymity is important because identity is not as important as has been made out in our dossier society. To wit, if Alice wishes to remain anonymous or pseudonymous to Bob, Bob cannot "demand" that she provide here "real" name. It's a matter of negotiation between them. (Identity is not free...it is a credential like any other and cannot be demanded, only negotiated.) - Voting, reading habits, personal behavior...all are examples where privacy (= anonymity, effectively) are critical. The next section gives a long list of reasons for anonymity. 8.3.2. What's the difference between anonymity and pseudonymity? + Not much, at one level...we often use the term "digital pseudonym" in a strong sense, in which the actual identity cannot be deduced easily - this is "anonymity" in a certain sense - But at another level, a pseudonym carries reputations, credentials, etc., and is _not_ "anonymous" - people use pseudonyms sometimes for whimsical reasons (e.g., "From spaceman.spiff@calvin.hobbes.org Sep 6, 94 06:10:30"), sometimes to keep different mailing lists separate (different personnas for different groups), etc. 8.3.3. Downsides of anonymity - libel and other similar dangers to reputations + hit-and-runs actions (mostly on the Net) + on the other hand, such rantings can be ignored (KILL file) - positive reputations - accountability based on physical threats and tracking is lost + Practical issue. On the Cypherpunks list, I often take "anonymous" messages less seriously. - They're often more bizarre and inflammatory than ordinary posts, perhaps for good reason, and they're certainly harder to take seriously and respond to. This is to be expected. (I should note that some pseudonyms, such as Black Unicorn and Pr0duct Cypher, have established reputable digital personnas and are well worth replying to.) - repudiation of debts and obligations + infantile flames and run-amok postings - racism, sexism, etc. - like "Rumormonger" at Apple? - but these are reasons for pseudonym to be used, where the reputation of a pseudonym is important + Crimes...murders, bribery, etc. - These are dealt with in more detail in the section on crypto anarchy, as this is a major concern (anonymous markets for such services) 8.3.4. "How will privacy and anonymity be attacked?" - the downsides just listed are often cited as a reason we can't have "anonymity" - like so many other "computer hacker" items, as a tool for the "Four Horsemen": drug-dealers, money-launderers, terrorists, and pedophiles. - as a haven for illegal practices, e.g., espionage, weapons trading, illegal markets, etc. + tax evasion ("We can't tax it if we can't see it.") - same system that makes the IRS a "silent partner" in business transactions and that gives the IRS access to-- and requires--business records + "discrimination" - that it enables discrimination (this _used_ to be OK) - exclusionary communities, old boy networks 8.3.5. "How will random accusations and wild rumors be controlled in anonymous forums?" - First off, random accusations and hearsay statements are the norm in modern life; gossip, tabloids, rumors, etc. We don't worry obsessively about what to do to stop all such hearsay and even false comments. (A disturbing trend has been the tendency to sue, or threaten suits. And increasingly the attitude is that one can express _opinions_, but not make statements "unless they can be proved." That's not what free speech is all about!) - Second, reputations matter. We base our trust in statements on a variety of things, including: past history, what others say about veracity, external facts in our possession, and motives. 8.3.6. "What are the legal views on anonymity?" + Reports that Supreme Court struck down a Southern law requiring pamphlet distributors to identify themselves. 9I don't have a cite on this.) - However, Greg Broiles provided this quote, from _Talley v. State of California_, 362 U.S. 60, 64-65, 80 S.Ct. 536, 538-539 (1960) : "Anonymous pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and even books have played an important role in the progress of mankind. Persecuted groups and sects from time to time throughout history have been able to criticize oppressive practices and laws either anonymously or not at all." Greg adds: "It later says "Even the Federalist Papers, written in favor of the adoption of our Constitution, were published under fictitious names. It is plain that anonymity has sometimes been assumed for the most constructive purposes." [Greg Broiles, 1994-04-12] + And certainly many writers, journalists, and others use pseudonyms, and have faced no legal action. - Provided they don't use it to evade taxes, evade legal judgments, commit fraud, etc. - I have heard (no cites) that "going masked for the purpose of going masked" is illegal in many jurisdictions. Hard to believe, as many other disguises are just as effective and are presumably not outlawed (wigs, mustaches, makeup, etc.). I assume the law has to do with people wearning ski masks and such in "inappropriate" places. Bad law, if real. 8.3.7. Some Other Uses for Anonymous Systems: + Groupware and Anonymous Brainstorming and Voting - systems based on Lotus Notes and designed to encourage wild ideas, comments from the shy or overly polite, etc. - these systems could initially start in meeting and then be extended to remote sites, and eventually to nationwide and international forums - the NSA may have a heart attack over these trends... + "Democracy Wall" for encrypted messages - possibly using time-delayed keys (where even the public key, for reading the plaintext, is not distributed for some time) - under the cover of an electronic newspaper, with all of the constitutional protections that entails: letters to the editor can be anonymous, ads need not be screened for validity, advertising claims are not the responsibility of the paper, etc. + Anonymous reviews and hypertext (for new types of journals) + the advantages - honesty - increased "temperature" of discourse + disadvantages - increased flames - intentional misinformation + Store-and-forward nodes - used to facillitate the anonymous voting and anonymous inquiry (or reading) systems - Chaum's "mix" + telephone forwarding systems, using digital money to pay for the service - and TRMs? ... We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."