Anonymity in the Age of Full Disclosure

Our lives are led increasingly online. According to the Pew Internet and American Life study, "the web has become the "new normal" in the American way of life." We buy and sell online, date, discuss and post credit card and social security numbers online. Private information, including photos, biographies, and zip codes are displayed in online profiles.

These are worlds in which identity theft by anonymous users happens frequently and can be personally devastating. "Someone hacked in my profile, and now it's saying "you are gay" all the time when you view my profile. How do I get it out?" asks one distressed user on a Topix.net forum.

The right to remain anonymous online seems to be the thorn in the side of parents, government and the average internet personality. Slashdot.org posters who don't reveal their identities are often referred to as "cowards." Many message boards do not allow users to post at all without a verifiable email address. As the internet becomes less and less anonymous, who is left to protect our privacy? And does anyone still care about anonymity online?

Blogger Seth Goodin views anonymity as a beast that needs to be tamed, "Virus writers are always anonymous. Vicious political lies (with faked Photoshop photos of political leaders, or false innuendo about personal lives) are always anonymous as well. Spam is anonymous. E-Bay fraudsters are anonymous too. It seems as though virtually all of the problems of the Net stem from this one flaw ... If we eliminate anonymity online, we can create a far more civil place."

Lawmakers in New Jersey seem to agree. Two new recent bills -- A1327 and A2623 -- introduced to the state assembly require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to disclose user information in any claim of defamation. If these bills were to pass, individuals who are accused of online bad-talk in New Jersey would face instant disclosure of their identities to their accusers.

While it may seem that having one's identity revealed may not be that serious, Paul Levy, an attorney who deals with cases of online defamation for the Public Citizen Litigation Group has seen just how serious it can be. Levy is currently representing one person who was identified as having criticized another person in his community. After his identity was fully revealed, he was forced to move out of his hometown.

Levy says that in other cases, "If you criticized a public official, you are worried about the various things public officials can do to you that are hard to prove ... or if you criticized a mobster, you are worried about very nasty things that could get done to somebody ... "

However being identified doesn't just mean you suffer humiliation or threats, being identified also means a formal lawsuit may be brought against you, costing time and money.

To make matters worse, the other New Jersey bill A2623 would require ISPs to remove any "inappropriate" content when notified by a user of material that is defamatory or offensive. This means that ISPs, who will not have time, resources or legal expertise to determine if something is or is not defamatory, will erase anything that may be considered offensive or illegal.

Threat to freedom of speech?

In addition to enabling countless futile law suits, these bills would violate the right to free speech and anonymity, something some may call the very essence of the internet. While these bills would only apply to cases brought to courts in New Jersey, if passed they could effect legislation in other states, and even around the world, legitimizing internet censorship.

It is free speech -- often contingent upon anonymity -- that leads people to speak openly about politics in countries where media is controlled by the state, such as Iran. Largely anonymous communities like Weblogistan provide a place for free expression that does not exist elsewhere in the Iranian media. Even in America, where free speech is protected by law, members of the military have resorted to using anonymous blogs to criticize Donald Rumsfeld, for example, or to write about their personal experiences at war, without giving away classified information.