anonymous services

[Dominick Millevoi]

Your email inappropriately frames the issue by placing individuals who use the service on the defensive by requiring them to justify the use of readily available technology that has become increasingly necessary to maintain even a small degree of personal privacy in the present age of data harvesting and resale, but I'll bite. ;)

Lets say I want to report that my company is dumping toxic waste, but I don't want to lose my job. If the company discovers that I blew the whistle, they would more than likely fire me. There are many spins on this scenario where people would basically feel freer to report crimes anonymously to avoid retaliation from the perpetrators - including lawsuits filed by organizations against individuals who release information that might negatively affect stock value, reputation etc...

Additionally, I just may like expressing opinions that some individuals may dislike. If these people were able to identify me, they may personally try to harm me, or sue me, or try to have me fired. People are strange, and too many individuals take heated discussions personally. If anyone feels that they may suffer harm from expressing an unpopular opinion, freedom of speech will suffer a great blow.

There is also very little regulation protecting the consumer from organizations that may resell personally identifying information; consequently, the best defense is anonymity...


Lucas Vogel wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
>         After reading the heated dialog about having to shut down JLF's anonymous
> services, I was wondering if we could have a dialog about it.
> 
>         Why do we need it? What is it primarily used for? I ask these things not
> because I feel strongly either way about anonymous services, but because I
> have never felt the need to send anonymous email(assuming that's the only
> service?) to anybody. What are some of the different reasons people use this
> service, and who/what gets hurt if we don't have it?
> 
> Lucas
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