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Levels of Anonymity on the Internet

1. Full name (“facename”, “orthonymnous”) – Posting with your real name. First and last, or just first.
   • Difficult to engage with developing fringe ideas or systems of thought, but is quite a good way to signal which emerging systems of thoughts or behaviors are on their way in.
   • Frequently only used for births, deaths, significant career milestones, and signaling for your favorite political candidate, due to the gravitas behind statements made with your name.
   • This post is published under my real name.
2. Pseudonymous – Posting with an assumed name that can easily be traced to you.
   • This is one layer of protection and allows you to entertain more unorthodox points of view get them seen and feedback.
   • References to one’s job or career, research, university, geographical region, or life experiences would be made on a pseudonymous account.
   • This is the type of account one might share with their friends or coworkers. Prevents complete strangers from finding you but not the NSA
3. Anonymous account – Posting with a name that would be near impossible for anyone determined to find you.
   • Topics touched on can be commentary on any subject, but should have no or very minimal reference to the author’s personal life
   • Note that if someone wants to find the holder of an anonymous account, any stories from the author can be easily traced by broadcasting them loud enough until someone the author knows in real life who was there or has heard about the anecdote receives broadcast and reports.
   • On sites with user post history, like twitter, a profile gets built up over time that together could reveal someone’s identity, but on one-shot message boards like 4chan it is usually difficult to find more about a person
   • If public identification happens, if there is post history, and unfavorable things have been said on this account, it can be linked instantly further causing problems for the poster, but if there is no post history nothing else gets revealed
4. Total anonymity – Maintaining total anonymity from everyone including internet providers and government surveillance
   • This requires many extra steps must be taken that won’t be documented intensely here, but could include using a vpn and the tor network, and using burner emails or phone numbers.
5. Separate Network - Using a network of computers that is inaccessible through IP addresses is the most secure. This would mean building your own internet.
   • Note that any computer that connects to the main internet could be an entry point for data leakage, as happened with Stuxnet