The web is losing it’s anonymity

The New York Times wrote an excellent article about the internet losing it’s anonymity. The article describes almost the same I was thinking lately about the web and my own anonymity.

Until recent years I’ve always used a nickname on the internet. In fact, I was trying to leave no traceable ”fingerprints” on the web. Where others started sharing their real name, their photos and whatever more on upcoming social networks. I’ve always withhold myself from that kind of sharing. Every account I created on a website, every IRC channel I entered and every game I played, I would use my nickname. I had a strict rule not to share any photos or other personal information on the web.

As I said, it’s only since recent years that I started using my real name. I guess it started with Facebook. It might have started a while before, but Facebook really pushed it through.

This change also came with the idea that I actually wanted to be found on the internet, in a good way. When people search my name, I want them to find the work that I’ve done, the things I wrote and so on. You could call it personal branding, if you like. If you would do a search for my real name on Google four years ago, you would only find a handful of page’s. If you run the same search query today there are about 500 pages having my name on them.

I still have some rules about sharing information about me, but they have become less strict. Nowadays I click the connect-with-facebook-buttons all the time, knowing that it will link my real name to the website. But sharing personal photos for the public is still a no-go.

Of course you could ask yourself why I am so protective about my personal information. Well it’s about privacy. Others say “I’ve nothing to hide“, but I don’t believe that. I think everybody has something to hide, but you might only find out what that is when it is too late.

What about you? Let me know in the comments below.