You Can’t Be Anonymous Online, So Be Yourself!

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I want to clear up a huge misconception about the internet:

You are not anonymous online, no matter how hard you try to hide your identity.

Everything you do online is recorded and traced back to your computer with the time and date stamped on it.  Everything you post online is indexed by the search engines and is there forever.  You may not even remember the time that you used a nickname years ago but if you ever use the nickname again, Google will make the connection.  You don’t have to be a detective anymore to find the clues, the search engines do the work for you.

You Can Find Anything Online

I am one of the admins for a blog that received a nasty comment.  When looking into it, I noticed that the name given in the comment was the equivalent of a “John Smith”.  Just for the fun of it, I took all the information that was provided in the comment and entered it into Google.  Within 2 minutes and 3 or 4 quick searches, I narrowed my search for the commenter down to a person who lives within a few blocks of the blog owner along with his full name, address, phone number, possible relatives, websites he recently visited, his current job and his work history.  I’m not going to do anything with the information but I’m just saying that it is all out there and easily searchable.

Most People Leave Their Digital Fingerprints All Over the Net

Most people, whether they realize it or not leave some sort of digital fingerprint when they comment online.  They may use a certain alias or user ID (when trying to be anonymous), use a word or expression that can be traced back to them or some other piece of evidence they can leave without realizing it.  It may even be different variations of a word such as adding a number or using that word for an email address on several providers (yahoo, hotmail, aol…) Any of that information can lead you right to the commenter.  If all else fails, the internet provider can be court ordered to surrender the commenter’s identity if need be.

Participate Online as Yourself

That being said, there is no reason to be afraid of getting online if you are honest and authentic.  Treat the online world as you would treat the offline world.  Be transparent and friendly and you will attract friends and loyal fans.  If you choose not to be transparent, your customers will be wary and if you try to do something anonymously, you will be found out.  It’s just so easy.

So go ahead and participate online.  Just please, do yourself a favour and be yourself.

Once You Press Send You Can Never Take It Back

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Everything You Say Online Stays Online… Forever

As Peter Parker/Spiderman’s Uncle Ben once said “with great power, comes great responsibility”. In this digital age, we all have a “great power”, the power of our voices. Anyone in the world can have his opinion heard and it is as simple as commenting on a blog post or video online. What many people don’t realize though is that once you use your voice, you can’t really take back what you said. Every webpage, post and comment is indexed in Google and other search engines and will probably be around forever in one form or another.

E-mail Can Be Just As Public As The Rest Of The Web

E-mail as well can be a tool to project your voice. Even if you just send an e-mail to one individual, it doesn’t mean that he won’t forward it to the rest of the world. Once you press “send” you can never take it back.

News Spreads At the Speed of Light

Yesterday I received an email from an organization that was sent to their entire mailing list about an event which I thought was pretty important. Immediately after receiving the e-mail, I posted it to Facebook, tagged all the local people I could find and then asked people to spread the word. Within less than an hour, three other major organizations sent out the exact message word for word to their entire mailing lists. A few minutes after that, I got a call from the original sender who told me that the event was not supposed to be on such a large scale and they wanted to keep it a little quieter. My response was that first of all, if that was the case, they should have specified and second “once you press ‘send’ you can never take it back”.

Mail Goggles

A while ago, Google Labs (which I’m a big fan of), introduced Mail Goggles as an optional add-on for Gmail. When enabled, Mail Goggles requires you to answer several math equations before being able to send emails at nighttime. This was created because too many people send emails out at night that they regret the next morning and can never take back.

Emails Gone Bad

Don’t think that just because you are friends or partners with someone that you can send them anything and it will be kept quiet. There are so many cases of blackmail and lawsuits based on these types of e-mails from friendships that fell apart. Every other week there is a case of teenagers sexting each other and causing major problems.

We all have a great power to use our voice but we also have the responsibility to think before we click “send” or “post”.