Skip to main content

Public Citizen On "Internet Anonymity"

Is there a "First Amendment right to speak anonymously on the Internet" or anywhere else for that matter? I tend to agree with Public Citizen and EFF that there is and should be a right to anonymity, but that's not the right question. The question is how to identify and stop terrorists who are abusing not only that right but more fundamentally, my right to my life.

It's really a question of what causes the most damage by potentially somewhat limiting our rights, the FBI or terrorists. My right to move freely and feel safe has been severely damaged by terrorists. I see the benefit in giving law enforcement the latitude to seek terrorists that might hide behind the mask of anonymity. It's a tradeoff and a solution, albiet not a perfect one. What I don't see from EFF and Public Citizen is an alternative solution.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Evolving Internet: A look ahead to 2025 by Cisco and the Monitor Group's Global Business Network

My employer (Cisco) published its most recent forward looking study of the Internet today. It's called " The Evolving Internet: A look ahead to 2025 by Cisco and the Monitor Group's Global Business Network " and although I haven't studied it in detail yet, I scanned it this morning and I liked what I saw. Those who know me will not be surprised that I particularly liked the three dimensional evaluation criteria that they used to frame their analysis. Lately nearly everything I do ends up finding its way into some sort of analytical cube like this. I've been wondering whether there is something wrong with me that I can't seem to frame things simply in two dimensions. Glad to have company.

DouglasRoss.com

Network Solutions is having a sale on URL's. Mine (http://www.douglasross.com) doesn't do anything at the moment (I'm saving it for a rainy day) but it was coming up on ten years and I needed to renew it to protect my name. So I decided to take them up on their pay-in-advance 20 year package sale for $279.00 or $13.95 per year (about half of the regular annual fee...probably not that good a deal in hindsight.) But the kicker was, after I hit the pay button it dawned on me that I'll be over 83 years old when this thing expires. How creepy is that? If I make it I'll take it as a good sign and re-up for another 20 years. And by then maybe I'll have done something with it.