The Online Anonymity Is An Illusion

Being anonymous online is a powerful tool. The Anonymous online hackers' movement has targeted a pepper spraying policeman. When this "right" and the power it holds is challenged by the government or by businesses, it can cause a furore e.g. by previous SA Attorney-General Michael Atkinson last year or by online platform Google +

The Supreme Court of the United States constantly reminds American courts that the First Amendment right, the right to freedom of expression, includes a "right" to anonymity. For example, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 makes it an offence "to do an act, otherwise than in private, if the act is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people; and the act is done because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the group."

There are a few exemptions for acting in good faith and reasonably in the context of art, academic and scientific works and debates or comments on matters of public interest, but it's not difficult to find comments online which could potentially fall under the definition of the offence and aren't covered by any of the exemptions.

Then defamation - to be defamatory, an untruthful statement communicated to anyone who is not the subject must expose the subject to ridicule, lower their reputation in the eyes of members of the community, cause people to shun or avoid them or injure their professional reputation. Again, it would only take a few seconds to find these types of comments online.

Users have accepted that their public post on a news site or blog might result in hateful, abusive or disgusting responses from anonymous users. But lately, as more popular websites provide for public comments, the sheer amount of negative content means that users are starting to push back.

In these circumstances, a user could seek to identify the author of a defamatory or racially discriminative post through the author's internet service provider (ISP) - and it is possible that a court would order the author's ISP to hand over their details.

Means to be anonymous on the net:
Step 1) Use a public computer: best one are the ones that you find in shopping arcades like Broadway and Parramatta Westfield that costs you one dollar for half an hour of internet. You want make up a username for your account and none is wiser. If the police traces they will just trace back to the public computer, which has no records of who really used the computer for slander/libel purposes. Counter: none really, except to make new laws to make sure that all computers have records as to who used it.

2) Hacking, whether using other people's wireless or breaking into their computers: simple enough. Whatever you do will be traced only back to your target's IP and not to your computer. Counter: Damn it, people, get better security. Use better pws for your wireless. Use firewall.

Source : http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/why-online-anonymity-is-an-illusion-20111125-1nxnh.html