Anonymity on the Internet by Jurijs Rapoports, Chapter Leader at the OWASP Foundation

EM360 TECH

Published on
20/04/2020 01:53 PM

Anonymity on the internet refers to protecting a person's identity from another user or their party over the internet. Privacy is the number one priority of internet users where users demand their actions remain hidden from unwanted observation. This may be valued for multiple reasons such as secure billing, anonymous blogging and posting, etc.

But what many of us don’t understand is that there isn’t any such thing as anonymity on the internet; it is basically non-existent by default. Your service provider is fully aware of every step you take online and can follow your cyber steps easily. Apart from that, virtually everywhere, your information gets sold to companies that use it for commercial purposes or poorly designed software leak your sensitive information resulting in cyber hacks.

In this article, we are going to discuss whether internet anonymity is good or bad and exactly how can you ensure internet privacy.

Is Anonymity Good or Bad?

Anonymity on the internet is a debatable topic. While it is beneficial in some cases, it can make an enterprise crash and burn as well. A few basic examples of how it does that are discussed below:

Positives

1.    Highly sensitive enterprises can never be too careful. That is why they prefer online anonymity so their employees inform the management about activities by their co-workers that could harm the business.

2.    In addition to this, companies often keep a check and balance system to monitor the activities of their employees to identify those who view unwanted materials and job search sites on the internet. Online anonymity protects employee’s privacy and information access rights.

Negatives

1.    The internet has given people a platform to interact more and share their views, likes, and dislikes with a wide audience. Gone are the days where companies operate from the shadows. Now they have to put their foot down and capitalise by interacting with the users and get to know their demands.

2.    Anonymity over the internet crashes and burn the entire business operation. For then, a company will be completely clueless about its customer and will shoot arrows in complete and utter darkness. This will result in a waste of resources and a lesser chance of hooking a customer.

Takeaway

Though anonymity on the internet is beneficial to enterprises, to some extent, it’s negatives exceed its benefits. This so happens because of the sudden flux in technology where the openness of people demands enterprises to have a one-on-one with consumers and build a positive relationship with them to survive in this cut-throat competitive world.

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