Defending the Constitutional Right to Be Anonymous

Today through Thursday I'm participating in an online symposium at Concurring Opinions in which a whole list of us have been asked to comment on Danielle Citron's article Cyber Civil Rights.

There are already a large number of interesting contributions there, and I've just added mine: CCR Symposium: The Right to Remain Anonymous Matters. It may be controversial.

This entry was posted in Civil Liberties, Law: Constitutional Law, Law: Internet Law. Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to Defending the Constitutional Right to Be Anonymous

  1. via tor says:

    Unfortunately, due to technical reasons, Concurring Opinions is unfriendly to anonymous comments.

    Specifically, comments there require appear to require javascript. (They may also require cookies—not sure on exact details.) As I expect you’re aware, enabling javascript is a significant threat to anonymity.

    I’d encourage you to just boycott any discussion of online anonymity at Concurring Opinions. They’re entitled to lock anonymous contributors out of their one-sided discussion, but please don’t lend them your reputation. That venue doesn’t deserve serious consideration.

  2. michael says:

    I don’t think comments here are all that anonymous either. My blog software logs your IP number, and I’m sure Dreamhost keeps extensive logs too. I don’t think of this as an app that would justify the extra cost to find a host that didn’t…

  3. via tor says:

    I don’t think comments here are all that anonymous either.

    But your blog doesn’t throw technical roadblocks in front of people.

    I wouldn’t go so far as say that Solove & Co. are knowingly cooperating with repressive regimes. But Solove & Co. are actually aiding evil regimes.

    You’re not.

    There’s a slight moral difference.

  4. the proxinator says:

    michael-
    Did you see slashdot article today discussing federal sentencing guidelines amplified by 25% where computer crime committed using anonymous proxy? Opinion? Why is this happening under Obama? I thought he was supposed to be tech literate?

  5. michael says:

    Isn’t the Sentencing Commission an independent agency? In which case it’s unlikely Obama has had a chance to appoint anyone to it yet.

    Judges that I’ve met — especially the older ones — often seem irrationally afraid of or angry at “hackers”. This seems to feed on that attitude.

  6. the proxinator says:

    Of course one way to interpret the recommendation is the government’s recognition that proxies serve a valuable public purpose, and their abuse by criminal actors is especially heinous. Ha, ha, yeah right.

  7. AndyNominOus says:

    Being Anonymous is a bit.. ch.

Comments are closed.