Anonymity

Interweaving childhood reminiscences with poignant meditations on the impact of grief and tragedy, a daughter details her father's 1983 death from AIDS and her family's struggle to cope with his death and his heretofore unrevealed homosexual life.

Formally launched in 2014, ALA's Center for the Future of Libraries works to identify emerging trends relevant to libraries and the communities they serve, promote futuring and innovation techniques to help librarians and library professionals shape their future, and build connections with experts and innovative thinkers to help libraries address emerging issues. The first volume in a new series presented in partnership with the Center, Anonymity explores the roles and ramifications of this hallmark of technology. In the virtual realm, anonymity means that such bedrock values of librarianship as privacy, free speech, and intellectual freedom coexist uneasily with the proliferation of fake news, sexist and racist sentiments, and repugnant ideologies. As trusted guardians of knowledge, libraries and librarians can fill a growing need for reputable information and open dialog. Macrina, founder and director of the Library Freedom Project and a core contributor to the Tor Project, along with co-author Cooper, whose important advocacy in archives informs this work, discuss apps (Whisper, Secret) and forums (Reddit) that promote anonymity as a central feature, even as so-called true anonymity remains elusive because of pervasive user data tracking. They also examine how anonymous content has become valuable fodder for both news organizations and clickbait websites. Will the rise of anonymity and the vulnerabilities it exposes, especially for governments and businesses, lead to a movement against it? Or have our society and its technology passed the point of no return? Bringing issues and viewpoints from outside the profession into the conversation, this book will encourage libraries to think about anonymity and what it means for the future of our institutions.

For those with legitimate reason to use the Internet anonymously--diplomats, military and other government agencies, journalists, political activists, IT professionals, law enforcement personnel, political refugees and others--anonymous networking provides an invaluable tool, and many good reasons that anonymity can serve a very important purpose. Anonymous use of the Internet is made difficult by the many websites that know everything about us, by the cookies and ad networks, IP-logging ISPs, even nosy officials may get involved. It is no longer possible to turn off browser cookies to be left alone in your online life. Practical Anonymity: Hiding in Plain Sight Online shows you how to use the most effective and widely-used anonymity tools--the ones that protect diplomats, military and other government agencies to become invisible online. This practical guide skips the theoretical and technical details and focuses on getting from zero to anonymous as fast as possible. For many, using any of the open-source, peer-reviewed tools for connecting to the Internet via an anonymous network may be (or seem to be) too difficult because most of the information about these tools is burdened with discussions of how they work and how to maximize security. Even tech-savvy users may find the burden too great--but actually using the tools can be pretty simple. The primary market for this book consists of IT professionals who need/want tools for anonymity to test/work around corporate firewalls and router filtering as well as provide anonymity tools to their customers. Simple, step-by-step instructions for configuring and using anonymous networking software Simple, step-by-step instructions for configuring and using anonymous networking software Use of open source, time-proven and peer-reviewed tools for anonymity Plain-language discussion of actual threats and concrete suggestions for appropriate responses Easy-to-follow tips for safer computing Simple, step-by-step instructions for configuring and using anonymous networking software Use of open source, time-proven and peer-reviewed tools for anonymity Plain-language discussion of actual threats, and concrete suggestions for appropriate responses Easy to follow tips for safer computing

Some of the greatest works in English literature were first published without their authors' names. Why did so many authors want to be anonymous--and what was it like to read their books without knowing for certain who had written them? In Anonymity, John Mullan gives a fascinating and original history of hidden identity in English literature. From the sixteenth century to today, he explores how the disguises of writers were first used and eventually penetrated, how anonymity teased readers and bamboozled critics--and how, when book reviews were also anonymous, reviewers played tricks of their own in return. Today we have forgotten that the first readers of Gulliver's Travels and Sense and Sensibility had to guess who their authors might be, and that writers like Sir Walter Scott and Charlotte Brontë went to elaborate lengths to keep secret their authorship of the best-selling books of their times. But, in fact, anonymity is everywhere in English literature. Spenser, Donne, Marvell, Defoe, Swift, Fanny Burney, Austen, Byron, Thackeray, Lewis Carroll, Tennyson, George Eliot, Sylvia Plath, and Doris Lessing--all hid their names. With great lucidity and wit, Anonymity tells the stories of these and many other writers, providing a fast-paced, entertaining, and informative tour through the history of English literature.

Is anonymity a crucial safeguard—or a threat to society? “One of the most well-informed examinations of the Internet available today” (Kirkus Reviews). “The author explores the rich history of anonymity in politics, literature and culture, while also debunking the notion that only troublemakers fear revealing their identities to the world. In relatively few pages, the author is able to get at the heart of identity itself . . . Stryker also introduces the uninitiated into the ‘Deep Web,’ alternative currencies and even the nascent stages of a kind of parallel Web that exists beyond the power of governments to switch it off. Beyond even that is the fundamental question of whether or not absolute anonymity is even possible.” —Kirkus Reviews “Stryker explains how significant web anonymity is to those key companies who mine user data personal information of, for example, the millions of members on social networks. . . . An impassioned, rational defense of web anonymity and digital free expression.” —Publishers Weekly

Jonathan Lusthaus lifts the veil on cybercriminals in the most extensive account yet of the lives they lead and the vast international industry they have created. Having traveled to hotspots around the world to meet with hundreds of law enforcement agents, security gurus, hackers, and criminals, he charts how this industry based on anonymity works.

Matt Carlson confronts the promise and perils of unnamed sources in this exhaustive analysis of controversial episodes in American journalism during the George W. Bush administration, from prewar reporting mistakes at the New York Times and Washington Post to the Valerie Plame leak case and Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS News. Weaving a narrative thread that stretches from the uncritical post-9/11 era to the spectacle of the Scooter Libby trial, Carlson examines a tense period in American history through the lens of journalism. Revealing new insights about high-profile cases involving confidential sources, he highlights contextual and structural features of the era, including pressure from the right, scrutiny from new media and citizen journalists, and the struggles of traditional media to survive amid increased competition and decreased resources.