Does anyone know why #Wikipedia allows "IP editing", i.e. making edits without an account? I see that it is the biggest source of vandalism.

#Anonymity #Pseudonymity #InfoSec #Communities #Wikis #Wiki

The Decoupling Principle https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/12/the-decoupling-principle.html #academicpapers #authentication #Uncategorized #pseudonymity #anonymity #privacy

#PostDigital #Pseudonymity

The Death of the Online Persona
"Even beyond safety concerns, I had to know-why would you ever want to go online and mirror the things you do in real life? The beauty of the web, to me, was that it WASN'T real life. Perhaps I could go online and chat in forums or play in virtual worlds with my real life friends, but we could have these fun dressed up avatars. We could go by silly names we stole from fantasy characters and go on adventures."
https://yesterweb.org/zine/issue-04/02/

Question for more experienced Mastodon users. I've just installed Fedilab on my phone and have added both my Masto accounts (this and my SWer account). They're on different instances. Not following each other. I want to keep them separate.

But in Fedilab posts from each show up on the other's home feed. It's alarming. Does that mean the profiles are linked?

My #pseudonymity and #onlineprivacy are crucially important to my wellbeing and safety, so this is worrying.

@vortex_egg There's a very long and substantial history of people adopting pseudonyms, nicknames, pen names, stage names, nommes de guerre, etc., for any number of reasons.

Some you're no doubt aware of, many you're quite likely not. ("Willy Brandt" was a particular surprise for me.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonym
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudonyms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pen_names
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stage_names
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudonyms_used_in_the_American_Constitutional_debates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononymous_person

#pseydonyms #pseudonymity #pseudonymous #PenNames #StageNames #NommesDeGuerre #Anonymity #Identity

De-anonymization Story https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/07/de-anonymization-story.html #de-anonymization #datacollection #Uncategorized #pseudonymity #surveillance #geolocation #privacy

Forced revelation of information makes individual privilege more important (2014)

In practice, the forced revelation of information makes individual privilege and power more important. When everyone has to play with their cards on the table, so to speak, then people who feel like they can be themselves without consequence do so freely -- these generally being people with support groups of like-minded people, and who are neither economically nor physically vulnerable. People who are more vulnerable to consequences use concealment as a method of protection: it makes it possible to speak freely about controversial subjects, or even about any subjects, without fear of harassment.

-- Yonatan Zunger, chief architect of Google+

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27858439

#RealNames #anonymity #pseudonymity #identity #power #PowerRelationships #YonatanZunger #GooglePlus #DavidBrin #TransparentSociety