An anonymous blog is a
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
without any acknowledged author or contributor. Anonymous bloggers may achieve
anonymity
Anonymity describes situations where the acting person's identity is unknown. Some writers have argued that namelessness, though technically correct, does not capture what is more centrally at stake in contexts of anonymity. The important idea he ...
through the simple use of a
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
, or through more sophisticated techniques such as
layered encryption routing, manipulation of post dates, or posting only from publicly accessible computers.
Motivations for posting anonymously include a desire for privacy or fear of retribution by an employer (e.g., in
whistleblower
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
cases), a government (in countries that monitor or censor online communication), or another group.
Deanonymizing techniques
Fundamentally, deanonymization can be divided into two categories:
*Social
correlation
In statistics, correlation or dependence is any statistical relationship, whether causal or not, between two random variables or bivariate data. Although in the broadest sense, "correlation" may indicate any type of association, in statistics ...
compares known details about a person's life with the contents of an anonymous blog to look for similarities. If the author does not attempt to conceal their identity, social correlation is a very straightforward procedure: a simple correlation between the "anonymous" blogger's name, profession, lifestyle, etc., and the known person. Even if an author generally attempts to conceal their identity (by not providing their name, location, etc.), the blog can be deanonymized by correlating seemingly innocuous, general details.
*Technical identification determines the author's identity through the blog's technical details. In extreme cases, technical identification entails looking at the server logs, the
Internet provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
logs, and payment information associated with the
domain name
A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...
.
These techniques may be used together. The order of techniques employed typically escalates from the social correlation techniques, which do not require the compliance of any outside authorities (e.g., Internet providers, server providers, etc.), to more technical identification.
Types
Just as a blog can be on any subject, so can an anonymous blog. Most fall into the following major categories:
*Political: A commentary on the political situation within a country, where being open may risk prosecution. Anonymous blogging can also add power to a political debate, such as in 2008 when blogger
Eduwonkette, later revealed as
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
sociology graduate student Jennifer Jennings, successfully questioned
New York Mayor
The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...
's takeover of New York schools.
*Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary: These can either be inspiring activity or counter activity, often against a violent state apparatus. For example,
Salam Pax
Salam Pax is the pseudonym of Salam Abdulmunem ( ar, سلام عبد المنعم), aka Salam al-Janabi ( ar, سلام الجنابي), under which he became the "most famous weblog, blogger in the world" during and after the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
, the ''Baghdad blogger'', wrote for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper under a pseudonym that he could shed only when
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
no longer ruled in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
. Similar bloggers appeared during the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
.
*Dissident: Dissident blogs may document life under an oppressive or secretive regime, while not actively promoting or inspiring revolutionary or counter-revolutionary action. ''
Mosul Eye
''Mosul Eye'' ( ar, عين الموصل) is a news blog created and maintained by historian and citizen journalist Omar Mohammed who graduated from Mosul University. For more than two years, Mohammed used the blog to report conditions and events ...
'', which has described life under ISIL occupation in Mosul, Iraq, has been called one of the few reliable sources of information on life inside the city since it began in June 2014.
*Religious: Views and comments about religious view points and issues, perhaps questioning some written standpoints.
*Whistleblower: The whistleblower blog is a modern-day twist on the classical "insider spotting illegality" theme. This can cover all sectors or issues. Among the most notable is that by the
Irish Red Cross
The Irish Red Cross Society (IRCS; also Irish Red Cross or IRC; ga, Crois Dhearg na hÉireann) is the National Red Cross Society for the Republic of Ireland. (Northern Ireland comes under the aegis of the British Red Cross.) The society was f ...
head of the international department Noel Wardick, who highlighted that
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...
162,000 in donations to the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...
had sat in an account for over three years. After spending over €140,000 on private investigators and legal expenses to find the whistle blower, including court orders to obtain Wardick's identity from
UPC and Google, the IRC disciplined and later dismissed Wardick. In 2010, an internal enquiry into Wardick's allegations found other such bank accounts, and proposals to overhaul the IRC's management were discussed in the
Dáil on 15 December. Questions were answered by
Tony Killeen
Tony Killeen (born 9 June 1952) is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served Minister for Defence from 2010 to 2011, Minister of State for Fisheries and Forestry from 2008 to 2010, Minister of State at the Department of the Environmen ...
, then the Minister of Defence. Wardick later successfully sued the IRC for
unfair dismissal In labour law, unfair dismissal is an act of employment termination made without good reason or contrary to the country's specific legislation.
Situation per country
Australia
(See: '' unfair dismissal in Australia'')
Australia has long-standing ...
.
*Company insider: A company employee or insider reports on company operations and issues from within the organisation. The most famous is probably the Dooce.com blogger
Heather Armstrong
Heather B. Armstrong (''née'' Hamilton, born July 19, 1975) is an American blogger who resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. She writes under the pseudonym of Dooce, a pseudonym that came from her inability to quickly spell "dude" during online chats ...
,
who was fired for writing
satirical accounts of her experiences at a
dot-com startup on her personal blog
dooce.com
*Community pressure: Written by a citizen of an area, on a particular subject, to bring about a change. In 2007, reporter and blogger
Mike Stark
Mike Stark is an American reporter, blogger, political activist, computer programmer/developer, and graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. His work often appears at StarkReports.com, ''The Huffington Post'', ''Daily Kos'' and sever ...
came out in support of anonymous blogger Spocko, who was trying to bring what he called "violent commentary" on
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
area radio station
KSFO
KSFO (560 AM) is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a talk radio format. The station's studios and offices are on Battery Street in the SoMa district of San Francisco, along with fiv ...
to the attention of its advertisers.
*Experience/Customer Service: Most experience blogs focus on personal insights or views of
customer service
Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. Each industry requires different levels of customer service, but in the end, the idea of a well-performed service is that ...
, frequently with dissatisfaction. Most anonymous experience blogs are written anonymously as they allow the customer/user to keep experiencing and using the service, and reporting/blogging, while nudging at a defined and appropriate level against the target organisation. Among these are Sarah Wu's/Mrs Q
"Fed Up With Lunch" blog a chronicle of her experience as an adult eating
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
area
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
lunch every day for a year, which has now been turned into a book.
*Personal: The personal blog strays into personal life in ways that allow more risk taking and open in terms of detail. Hence, many of these blogs are sexual in nature, although many also exist for those with health problems and disabilities and how they see the world and cope with its challenges. Some of the latest personal blogs are seen by many as extended
group therapy
Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, i ...
, covering issues including
weight loss
Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health, or physical fitness, refers to a reduction of the total body mass, by a mean loss of fluid, body fat (adipose tissue), or lean mass (namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon, and other conn ...
.
Recently, anonymous blogging has moved into a more aggressive and active style, with organized crime groups such as
the Mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...
using anonymous blogs against mayors and local administrators in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.
How online identity is determined
IP addresses
An
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
is a unique numerical label assigned to a computer connected to a
computer network
A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...
that uses the
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet.
IP h ...
for communication.
[, ''DOD Standard Internet Protocol'' (January 1980)] The most popular implementation of the Internet Protocol would be the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
(capitalized, to differentiate it from smaller
internetworks). Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are allocated chunks of IP addresses by a
Regional Internet registry
A regional Internet registry (RIR) is an organization that manages the allocation and registration of Internet number resources within a region of the world. Internet number resources include IP addresses and autonomous system (AS) numbers.
...
, which they then assign to customers. However, ISPs do not have enough addresses to give the customers their own address. Instead,
DHCP
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks for automatically assigning IP addresses and other communication parameters to devices connected to the network using a cli ...
is used; a customer's device (typically a modem or router) is assigned an IP address from a pool of available addresses. It keeps that address for a certain amount of time (e.g., two weeks). If the device is still active at the end of the lease, it can renew its connection and keep the same IP address. Otherwise, the IP address is collected and added to the pool to be redistributed. Thus, IP addresses provide regional information (through Regional Internet registries) and, if the ISP has logs, specific customer information. While this does not prove that a specific person was the originator of a blog post (it could have been someone else using that customer's Internet, after all), it provides powerful circumstantial evidence.
Word and character frequency analysis
Character frequency analysis takes advantage of the fact that all individuals have a different vocabulary: if there is a large body of data that can be tied to an individual (for example, a public figure with an official blog), statistical analysis can be applied to both this body of data and an anonymous blog to see how similar they are. In this way, anonymous bloggers can tentatively be deanonymized.
This is known as
stylometry
Stylometry is the application of Stylistics (linguistics), the study of linguistic style, usually to written language. It has also been applied successfully to music and to fine-art paintings as well.Shlomo Argamon, Argamon, Shlomo, Kevin Burns, ...
;
adversarial stylometry
Adversarial stylometry is the practice of altering writing style to reduce the potential for stylometry to discover the author's identity or their characteristics. This task is also known as authorship obfuscation or authorship anonymisation. St ...
is the study of techniques for resisting such stylistic identification.
See also
*
Anonymous P2P
An anonymous P2P communication system is a peer-to-peer distributed application in which the nodes, which are used to share resources, or participants are anonymous or pseudonymous. Anonymity of participants is usually achieved by special routi ...
*
Anonymous web browsing
Private browsing is a privacy feature in some web browsers. When operating in such a mode, the browser creates a temporary session that is isolated from the browser's main session and user data. Browsing history is not saved, and local data as ...
*
List of anonymously published works
Throughout the history of literature, since the creation of bound texts in the forms of books and codices, various works have been published and written anonymously, often due to their political or controversial nature, or merely for the purposes ...
*
Citizen journalism
Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...
*
Mix network
Mix networks are routing protocols that create hard-to-trace communications by using a chain of proxy servers known as ''mixes'' which take in messages from multiple senders, shuffle them, and send them back out in random order to the next desti ...
*
Anonymous remailer
An anonymous remailer is a server that receives messages with embedded instructions on where to send them next, and that forwards them without revealing where they originally came from. There are cypherpunk anonymous remailers, mixmaster anonymous ...
*
Tor (anonymity network)
Tor, short for The Onion Router, is free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication. It directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer overlay network, consisting of more than seven thousand relays, to conc ...
*
I2P
The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is an anonymous network layer (implemented as a mix network) that allows for censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer communication. Anonymous connections are achieved by encrypting the user's traffic (by using ...
References
External links
Computer Law and Security Report Volume 22 Issue 2, Pages 127-136blogs, Lies and the Doocing by
Sylvia Kierkegaard
Sylvia Mercado Kierkegaard was a Philippine jurist who specialized in computer law.
Her research covered a wide range of topics, including comparative contract law, alternative dispute resolution, intellectual property rights, European Union l ...
(2006)
Legal Guide for bloggersby the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...
{{Blog topics
Blog Personal Blogging
Internet terminology
Non-fiction genres
Internet privacy
Anonymity