July 22, 2011 at 00:10Anonymity on the Web: is there, will be. Is it needed?
The reason for writing this note, (or, if you like, the article) was an article about the anonymous FireTalks service, which does not require any authorization and, like (I don’t really doubt it, but leave the possibility of anything), does not store correspondence. My opinion is quite different from the author of the service and article, so I decided to raise this topic again.
I must say right away that everything written below has no professional basis for itself. I have been engaged in amateur analytics of Internet trends for a relatively long time. In the process of reflection on many issues, the topic of anonymity on the Internet has surfaced. Thinking about it (and discussing with other people), I came to the conclusion that is the opposite of my original opinion. However, let me explain the whole line of reasoning from the very beginning.
And for starters, we note the fact that the question “will the Internet be anonymous” is not: it will not be such, at least in its bulk. Because the trend of personalizing projects and services contradicts this, and this trend is obvious: remember that relatively recently, you had to log in only when checking email, and now there are practically no new projects working without the need to provide a username and password.
However, indeed, this dominance of services and sites that “know” so much about you is annoying. Most often they don’t hesitate to “ask” what they are interested in, but sometimes we also use the native Facebook authorization, after which, for example, a site that allows you to “share” and search for presentations knows where I studied, where I work, how much I have friends and a bunch of other information ... And really, it seems as if you are not just being watched, but you are on the scene, I'm sorry about what your mother gave birth to in front of a huge audience !!!
In addition, many are interested in the issue of providing personal information to special services. Many are afraid that they provide it. Do not hesitate - provide on demand! And sometimes they bring it themselves! And it makes no difference Russian is a service, American or some other. Everything is simpler in the USA than in the Russian Federation: there is a special law (if my memory serves me, adopted after the September 11 tragedy) called the Patriot Act - it says in black and white that “your secret” can become “their manifest” .
But is it so bad?
Campaigns use your personal information either to provide you with the most suitable offer or to collect statistics that can also be sold to someone. These statistics, I’m sure, are basically impersonal, since it’s you (if you’re not Justin Bieber, Steve Jobs or anyone else) who are of little interest to anyone other than traders (sorry, but this is true, but family and friends do not count) who want to "vparit" something for you. But it’s clearly not the traders who analyze this information, but the service itself, so it makes no sense to distribute it. Moreover, the leak of information on the dissemination of personal data extremely badly affects the ratings of services - it is not profitable for them.
As for the special services, then "they", of course, are watching as they can .... And for correspondence, and for conversations and for social services. networks in principle. Everyone is watching: the FSB, the FBI, and even, probably, Masad along with the Belarusian KGB. I'm serious. Only the fact that this is not total surveillance is obvious: the Soviet special services were considered very effective, but at the same time seven people worked on full surveillance of one person (as far as I remember; unfortunately, I do not remember the source). Even if you imagine that surveillance is online, the matter is much simpler, how many people do you need in order to monitor at least 20 million users in Russia ?!
Automated surveillance, you say. Of course, and not otherwise. But what does it matter to me that some software robot is reading and listening to me? They are probably set up so that they choose for reading only letters related to terrorism or a threat to the authorities ... And it is unlikely that they will be interested in anything else. I’m sure that if I arrange an “intimate” conversation with my girlfriend on Twitter, it won’t interest anyone, everyone is full of it, although it would seem - read it.
If your letter was selected by the appropriate filter (or whatever), or if you are friends in social networks. there was Doku Umarov or Boris Nemtsov (or another opposition politician, don’t think that I’m on a par with terrorists), then, of course, they took you under the pencil.
If someone is connected with terrorism, then I (like 99.99%) of other citizens are only glad that they found him. And if someone poses a threat to the current government, then it is very likely that the figure is public, that anonymity almost completely excludes ... In other cases, you are most likely not particularly interested in special services, even if you swear obscenely at the president or anyone else ...
Of course, my analysis will seem incomplete to many, but I'm sure that in general the situation can be described just like that. So if you are an ordinary citizen, sleep peacefully without closing the pages in Odnoklassniki.
I must say right away that everything written below has no professional basis for itself. I have been engaged in amateur analytics of Internet trends for a relatively long time. In the process of reflection on many issues, the topic of anonymity on the Internet has surfaced. Thinking about it (and discussing with other people), I came to the conclusion that is the opposite of my original opinion. However, let me explain the whole line of reasoning from the very beginning.
And for starters, we note the fact that the question “will the Internet be anonymous” is not: it will not be such, at least in its bulk. Because the trend of personalizing projects and services contradicts this, and this trend is obvious: remember that relatively recently, you had to log in only when checking email, and now there are practically no new projects working without the need to provide a username and password.
However, indeed, this dominance of services and sites that “know” so much about you is annoying. Most often they don’t hesitate to “ask” what they are interested in, but sometimes we also use the native Facebook authorization, after which, for example, a site that allows you to “share” and search for presentations knows where I studied, where I work, how much I have friends and a bunch of other information ... And really, it seems as if you are not just being watched, but you are on the scene, I'm sorry about what your mother gave birth to in front of a huge audience !!!
In addition, many are interested in the issue of providing personal information to special services. Many are afraid that they provide it. Do not hesitate - provide on demand! And sometimes they bring it themselves! And it makes no difference Russian is a service, American or some other. Everything is simpler in the USA than in the Russian Federation: there is a special law (if my memory serves me, adopted after the September 11 tragedy) called the Patriot Act - it says in black and white that “your secret” can become “their manifest” .
But is it so bad?
Campaigns use your personal information either to provide you with the most suitable offer or to collect statistics that can also be sold to someone. These statistics, I’m sure, are basically impersonal, since it’s you (if you’re not Justin Bieber, Steve Jobs or anyone else) who are of little interest to anyone other than traders (sorry, but this is true, but family and friends do not count) who want to "vparit" something for you. But it’s clearly not the traders who analyze this information, but the service itself, so it makes no sense to distribute it. Moreover, the leak of information on the dissemination of personal data extremely badly affects the ratings of services - it is not profitable for them.
As for the special services, then "they", of course, are watching as they can .... And for correspondence, and for conversations and for social services. networks in principle. Everyone is watching: the FSB, the FBI, and even, probably, Masad along with the Belarusian KGB. I'm serious. Only the fact that this is not total surveillance is obvious: the Soviet special services were considered very effective, but at the same time seven people worked on full surveillance of one person (as far as I remember; unfortunately, I do not remember the source). Even if you imagine that surveillance is online, the matter is much simpler, how many people do you need in order to monitor at least 20 million users in Russia ?!
Automated surveillance, you say. Of course, and not otherwise. But what does it matter to me that some software robot is reading and listening to me? They are probably set up so that they choose for reading only letters related to terrorism or a threat to the authorities ... And it is unlikely that they will be interested in anything else. I’m sure that if I arrange an “intimate” conversation with my girlfriend on Twitter, it won’t interest anyone, everyone is full of it, although it would seem - read it.
If your letter was selected by the appropriate filter (or whatever), or if you are friends in social networks. there was Doku Umarov or Boris Nemtsov (or another opposition politician, don’t think that I’m on a par with terrorists), then, of course, they took you under the pencil.
If someone is connected with terrorism, then I (like 99.99%) of other citizens are only glad that they found him. And if someone poses a threat to the current government, then it is very likely that the figure is public, that anonymity almost completely excludes ... In other cases, you are most likely not particularly interested in special services, even if you swear obscenely at the president or anyone else ...
Of course, my analysis will seem incomplete to many, but I'm sure that in general the situation can be described just like that. So if you are an ordinary citizen, sleep peacefully without closing the pages in Odnoklassniki.