Who’s afraid of anonymity?

Let’s face it, “anonymity” has become a dirty word. It is too often associated with “hiding” illicit activities and the perpetrators behind them.

Not only is this a false association, it also has huge consequences for our privacy whether we’re online or off.

Nym’s new series Who’s afraid of anonymity? will try to demystify anonymity and explore its fundamental relation to privacy and a safe, democratic life. But nothing is so simple, so we will also need to explore the limits and possible dangers of anonymity.

“Anonymity is not just a mask; it’s a shield.”

– Anonymous

What is anonymity?

For a moment, let’s forget all the scaremongering about anonymous criminals, shadowed faces lurking in the dark looking to hurt us. Yes, the fear of the unknown and unrecognizable is very real. But isn’t anonymity also a central aspect of human life? And when it comes to online surveillance, our many adversaries are even too dark to notice.

The meaning of anonymity

“Anonymity” comes to English from Ancient Greek, literally meaning the state (-ity) of having no (ano-) name (nym). But why would we want to lose our name? Isn’t this what makes us all individuals and protects our unique identities?

In some cases, yes. It can assure that private property belongs to us, or allow us to speak authentically and be held responsible for what we say publicly. But having an identifiable name which links us to something personal is also what leaves us vulnerable to attacks and exploitation when all we really want and need is privacy.

Given the widespread surveillance and tracking of the mico-details of our lives online, this linking of our identities with what we expect to be a private activity has, unfortunately, become a commonplace industry for profit and control. But it doesn’t begin and end with the internet.

But before diving in, let’s consider a more simple example to appreciate the value of anonymity.

A game of cards

Rounders (1998)

Imagine we’re playing a game of cards. Each of us has an individual hand which is _private _and concealed from others until we decide to play a card. Doing so will then make the card public. In some games, we may even share a collective hand in which teammates don’t even know what cards the others hold.

And then there is the deck from which cards can be collectively drawn. A key to fair play is that each card in the deck has two sides. First, there is the face value (number and suit) with its respective benefits to individuals when held or played. And then there is the card’s back side, facing the public and anonymous to them.

The anonymity of the card’s back is essential. If something about a card in the deck could be used to indicate the face-value (different shaped or damaged cards, unique designs or colors), then some players could de-anonymize the card to gain an unfair advantage over others. This would end the collective fun, joy, and gamble of the game itself.

Of course, human life isn’t just a game. But games do reveal something about the people that invented them: there is always a play of public and private, of anonymity and deanonymization, which have real world consequences for us all.

Privacy and anonymity are certainly not the same thing, but in the contemporary world they can share a common purpose. So let’s first consider how our expectations of privacy in the real world have evolved politically and struggle to find an equal home on the web.

Privacy as a political right

Rights to privacy are enshrined in democratic constitutions all over the world, even though billions of people still do not benefit from them. Of course, political rights are contextual and jurisdictional, depending on the country or society. Yet there are particular moments in history that helped advance the growing case for privacy as a universal right.

The U.S. constitution

In the United States, the “right to privacy” comes from the 4th Amendment to its constitution of 1791:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…”

This has an important context. Prior to the U.S.’s independence from the colonial rule of England, Americans often had their personal belongings searched and their personal “papers” or correspondences confiscated and read by colonial authorities. These arbitrary searches were often conducted without legal justification (“warrants”) by colonial police, and tended to be politically motivated: searching for untaxed items and anti-colonial political associations, or simply indiscriminate sweeps for blackmail material.

Note: The large majority of our “papers,” and even “houses” and “effects,” are now digital assets.

The US is just one country amongst others. And yet a law now over two centuries old importantly set the foundation for a common struggle in which people all over the world continue find themselves to ensure access to information and free communications. In the end, the US constitution was not simply a fight to stop one authoritarian government, but also to prevent the resurrection of authoritarianism in the future.

Privacy as a human right

Privacy also became a core part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which members of the United Nations have in principle committed to protect “against such interference or attacks”:

“No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence…” (Article 17)

As the UDHR makes clear, these personal privacy protections are inseparable from other fundamental human rights, such as the “freedom of thought” (Article 18) and the “freedom of opinion and expression,” including the right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (Article 19).

Privacy, in this context, is much more than a personal right: it is a democratic capacity that enables us to associate and communicate freely with others. No matter who and where we are.

Moreover, privacy is linked to shared information, but information itself is complicated. And the advent of the internet has accelerated these complications.

Online privacy

More and more of our lives are taking place online, and as they do there is thus a tremendous amount of personal information that is being made available, vulnerable to surveillance and data tracking. Even when the content of what we do or say is encrypted, our encrypted data leaks a lot of metadata that is being systematically harvested and used under our noses.

New legal protections for online privacy have thankfully started to emerge worldwide to curb the exploitation of personal data. The biggest so far is the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of 2018. The GDPR pledges to protect the data security and privacy of members of the EU, regardless of the companies that may handle the data globally. This is the beginning and not the end of the story.

In addition to defending the importance of end-to-end encryption to protect the privacy of the content of what we do and say online, the GDPR also introduces a number of new rights for “data subjects,” that is, we who use the internet. This includes, for example, the right to be informed about how our personal data will be used, and even the right to erasure or “to be forgotten,” that is, to remove our name from the digital public domain.

What’s largely left untouched by GDPR provisions, however, is what can be done with our metadata. But more on this later.

From privacy to anonymity

So far, this is a story about the evolution of privacy: from the constitutional rights of a particular country, to universal rights, to (still regional) digital rights. But what does all this have to do with anonymity?

It is certainly not necessary to be anonymous in order to be private in all aspects of life. For example, we should be able to discuss things privately in the confines of our own homes and social groups while other people in our neighborhood or society know our real names.

But there are important contexts in which genuine privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom to information require anonymity as a tool to achieve it. So let’s start exploring how.

Anonymity for a private, safe life

Anonymity is in fact a social necessity for everyone. Our rights and security, both personal and collective, often depend on it. So here is a taste of the topics that the new Nym series Who’s Afraid of Anonymity? will explore in the coming months.

Voting

When we cast a vote in an election, we not only expect that this vote will be respected and counted, but also that it will be anonymous and not publicly known. The bare facts of a vote must be public, but our name and personal information should be publicly unlinkable to us. Identifying individual voters for a political party or candidate could lead to voter intimidation, social outcasting, or even targeted killings in authoritarian regimes. Anonymity can ensure democratic participation.

There are many techniques for anonymizing the hard ballots of voters worldwide while also preventing voter fraud. However, voting in person poses serious logistical difficulties for many people (work commitments, long distances to voting stations, or the threats of in-person intimidation) which digital voting can resolve. But data and privacy security is necessary to do this properly. In this new technological era of democratic participation, data anonymity rises to the forefront.

Health care

If we need to have a medical service, we expect that the hospital or clinic will keep this information private. Publicly accessible medical records can lead insurance companies to raise our rates, employers to consider terminating contracts, or malicious individuals to target us. Medical data is definitely important for charting social trends, but unlinking individuals from their personal data through data anonymization ensures everyone has unimpeded access to health services.

Perhaps hard records are definitely a thing of the past, but ensuring the privacy and anonymity of digital records are still the problem. With the increasing rise of data leaks and cyber attacks, it’s more important than ever to ensure that our efforts to seek social and medical services are protected. For example, when it comes to women seeking out-of-state abortion services who may face community or legal reprisal, digital anonymity can be a part of ensuring safe passage.

Whistleblowing

A lot of people work for private, public, and government enterprises, and they are potential witnesses to a lot of wrongdoing. But if these workers need to report abuses, maintaining their anonymity with journalists or regulators can allow them to safely speak freely about the oppression or exploitation of others without fear of reprisal. Anonymity can ensure social justice.

But even journalists, for example, need assured technological means to preserve the anonymity and security of their communications with sources. It is for this reason that private and end-to-end encrypted messaging apps have been such a revolution: not to allow people to commit crimes, but to finally have the privacy and security in communicating with others through a digital space ridden with malicious adversaries.

The list goes on. And it is for this reason that we need to stop stigmatizing anonymity when it comes to digital privacy. The threats surrounding us are too many, varied, and omnipresent.

The urgency of online anonymity

Political “rights” do not rain down to us from the sky as unconditional truths, and the right to privacy is a case in point. Rights are demanded, fought for, enacted, and defended over time in relation to the real needs of human beings. In some contexts it might be needed to fight against oppression and injustice, and in others simply to live better and more safely with others.

With all the threats posed to our digital lives, online privacy needs to continue its course to becoming a globally recognized right. But in this digital day and age, anonymity is a necessary tool to achieve it in particular contexts where privacy is under threat. In fact, the need for online anonymity is so much more urgent given the sheer amount of personal information that is being made available online, often without our knowledge and genuine consent.

Anonymity is meaningful particularly in a social context like the public web in which we need to act without compromising our personal identity. Anonymity allows us to be contributing members of society while shielding us from its dangers. The examples above are just some moments when this really matters.

Who’s Afraid of Anonymity?

Nym is dedicated to exploring all social needs for digital anonymity and what it would take to technologically make it possible. So this is the first installment in a series that will explore the in-and-outs of online anonymity, its real world consequences and use cases, and the way it is being unjustly politically targeted.

In coming installments we will explore the role of anonymity in voting online and off, the need to shield our identities when seeking health services, and in protecting ourselves while speaking out against social and institutional injustices. So stay tuned!