Friday, March 25, 2005

Bloggers Anonymous

Blogging can be addictive. The exhibitionist in a blogger comes out as we blab our deepest thoughts, feelings and actions to the entire world of strangers, friends and family. All these thoughts are easily found through a Google ego search.

Anoniminity on the Internet is hard to come by. Your computer is identified by an IP address and these addresses are recorded in statistics logs and ISP billing/access logs. A programming varible used by languages such as ColdFusion, PHP and Active Server Pages is called CGI.REMOTE_ADDR and each webserver you visit holds your IP address in that variable so even the most beginner programmer can print it on the screen or make decisions based on that address. Your identity is safe. For most people this IP address changes regularly and it gives no access to your personal information and no access to your computer.

How does the IP address impact you then? If you access a website and post a message and someone had the legal right to track you down that person or agency could request the server logs of the website where you posted the message. Using the time that the message was posted and the IP address that agency could then contact your ISP and use their billing logs to figure out who was connected through that IP address at the time of the post. Even if you go to the library to post through a publically accessible terminal the library would have used your library card to give you access to the terminal and that access is logged.

But that is not the kind of anoniminity we began discussing. If you post to your blog using a code name isn't it anonymous to the average user? I content that it is not. Eventually you are going to post something that you want someone else, like your wife, to read. Once you've let them see that you have a blog it is no longer anonymous. Tell a secret to one person and it so no longer a secret. Now that person might not be keeping an anonymous blog and links back to you. Suddenly everyone in the world can search straight to you via your wife.

Let's say you never tell anyone. The postings and stories you tell eventually will identify you. We all have unique lives. At some time someone is going to run across your blog by searching for something unique to you and put two and two together. "Hey Bob! I read a blog today about a guy that won the xyz championship while wearing blue boxers. Aren't you the only person that has ever done that?"

As you post remember that you are publishing into the public's eye. If you want to write something private and anonymous perhaps it should go in a paper diary that stays in a safe.

Blogger tells us How Not To Get Fired and everyone should be familiar with the famous story of a MS Employee Fired Because of Blog.


djuggler's personal blog is Reality Me and consult's as Superior Internet Designs


Posted by: djuggler | 8:20 AM |