Beyond a Dichotomous Understanding of Online Anonymity: Bridging the Macro and Micro Level

Anonymity on the Internet is a contentious issue; by some seen as an important freedom to be protected, while others argue for increased identification to protect groups at risk of exploitation. The debate reflects a dichotomous view of online anonymity; you are, or you are not anonymous. However, anonymity is a complex process played out on different levels and defined by various actors. While empirical studies show this, theoretical synthesis is lacking. This essay provides perspective on anonymity online by comparing two critical cases, online auctions and online gaming, we corroborate results from a 4-year interdisciplinary project with researchers from sociology, economics, and computer and system sciences. We argue that one should talk about anonymities in plural form, as online anonymity is not a state but a relational process. We put forth a conceptual model, which unpacks online anonymity as interdependent macro structures – legal, commercial, and technological – and micro/meso facets – factual, social group, and physical – to be used in future research.

Review and insight on the behavioral aspects of cybersecurity

Stories of cyber attacks are becoming a routine in which cyber attackers show new levels of intention by sophisticated attacks on networks. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have figured out profitable business models and they take advantage of the online anonymity. A serious situation that needs to improve for networks’ defenders. Therefore, a paradigm shift is essential to the effectiveness of current techniques and practices. Since the majority of cyber incidents are human enabled, this shift requires expanding research to underexplored areas such as behavioral aspects of cybersecurity. It is more vital to focus on social and behavioral issues to improve the current situation. This paper is an effort to provide a review of relevant theories and principles, and gives insights including an interdisciplinary framework that combines behavioral cybersecurity, human factors, and modeling and simulation.

GRUNDER: Are you attracted to me?

Are you attracted to me? is part of Larry Walker-Tonks’ on-going GRUNDER series which he began during his MA at the University of Salford after growing tired of having feeling that his body was treated as a commodity by other users on dating apps. The following text is appropriated from messages that the artist himself has received through dating apps Grindr and Tinder. Walker-Tonks’ GRUNDER series reflects upon how we present ourselves online; how we use dating apps like Grindr and Tinder; the consequences of a highly sexualized western culture; and how new-found online anonymity has torn down the boundaries between what is and is not acceptable public discourse, which has resulted in an accepted laddish camaraderie and ‘send nudes’ culture in the Facebook age. In this context Are you attracted to me? and the wider GRUNDER project serve as an intervention and warning. The text from Are you attracted to me? provided a script used as an audio element accompanying a ‘speaking sculpture’ shown during an immersive GRUNDER event in Manchester in 2017. The text is complete with original spelling mistakes and grammatical errors for your reading pleasure.

Why is Twitter so popular in Japan?

Across the countries of the world, Japan can rightly claim to be a great “Twitter nation” (Akimoto 2011). Japanese people like to tweet anytime and anywhere. Although the popularity of Twitter in Japan is often associated with the large information capacity of Japanese character sets (Wagner 2013), Neubig and Duh (2013) prove that this is not necessarily the case. Our research compares two sets of data (300 tweets for each) posted by Japanese and Americans, and demonstrates that Japanese tweets contain more monologic features, or show a higher degree of monologicity, than Americans’ tweets. Also, more than 60% of the sentence-ending forms in the Japanese tweets do not encode explicit addressee orientation. The study reveals that it is not the Japanese unique character sets, but the grammatical devices for monologization that linguistically allow Japanese users to enjoy the fullest benefits of online anonymity and addressee underspecification provided by Twitter.

Conclusion

The Conclusion briefly summarizes the preceding chapters, drawing continuities between early modern English convent autobiography and other arenas of early modern religious practice. It points the way for future comparative studies, and suggests how the concepts of subsumed and anonymous autobiography might be extended to other disciplines and areas of enquiry. It concludes with an analysis of the continuities between anonymous convent authorship and online anonymity, arguing that both contexts demonstrate that the passion for autobiographical expression exists alongside what Philippe Lejeune called the ‘passion for anonymity’. Convent literature and our ever-evolving online behaviours reveal a passion for anonymous autobiography, for the need to speak without being named.

Does online anonymity boost illegal market trading?

Anonymity allows the online trade in illegal products and services on cryptomarkets to flourish in spite of being enacted in a public location. Bolstered by the extensive media coverage of the cryptomarket trade in drugs, fraud and weapons, these platforms may function as a kind of criminal ‘gateway’, and in so doing facilitate – or indeed amplify – criminality. I argue, however, that researchers must establish – not assume – that the criminality facilitated by online anonymity will exclusively and uniformly produce more harmful outcomes. I consider here two possibilities in connection to the cryptomarket trade in illegal drugs: reduced drug market violence and reduced drug harms to users. Whether these potential ‘benefits’ are viewed as valuable will vary and depend substantially on the perspective and interests of the observer, including drug sellers, drug buyers, law enforcement officials, and academic researchers.

Does online anonymity undermine the sense of personal responsibility?

This article begins by exploring the media visibility of anonymity online, in particular in relation to trolls and online bullying. It then explores anonymity in the case of Chelsea Manning who leaked US military secrets but only lost anonymity sometime after her leak was made public. This discussion explores issues of responsibility and the reasons for being anonymous. The article then briefly discusses anonymity based on the discussion of the Manning case in relation to the Snowden case, where Snowden refused anonymity, and the Pentagon Papers. The article concludes by pointing out that issues of responsibility in relation to anonymity remain similar whether digital or not, but that anonymity now exists in a context in which there is greater ability to share information between many more people, faster and with radically lowered costs of publishing than before.

Understanding online anonymity

Whenever we navigate the Web, we leave a trace through our IP address, which can in turn be used to establish our identity – for instance, by cross-checking it with a user’s Internet subscription. By using software such as VPN and Tor, however, it might be possible to avoid leaving such traces. A lively debate among policymakers, security professionals, hacker communities, and human rights associations has recently ensued regarding the question if such anonymity is acceptable and in which form. This article introduces the Crosscurrent special section dedicated to this topic by providing a brief overview of this debate and by pointing to the necessity of considering online anonymity from multiple, interrelated perspectives. By taking into account both technical and social dimensions, we argue that online anonymity should not be conceptualized in absolute terms but as an inherently fluid and transitional condition that characterizes any kind of social interaction online.