Why You Should Stay Anonymous and Protect Your Privacy Online

Bruce Schneider states that: “Privacy is an inherent human right and a requirement for
maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.” However, most of us do not
equate online privacy with real-world privacy. In the real world, we would not tolerate our
right to a private life to be breached; we surely would not be happy if others would enter
our houses and snoop around without our consent yet we tend to allow this in the online
world.

In the past few years, we have seen how online privacy has been breached over and over
again, not only by governments but also by businesses and private persons.

Surprisingly there has not been a large societal outbreak, in fact, many people seem not
to care, in fact, a large number are of the opinion that if one has nothing to hide, then they
should not care about privacy.

Edward Snowden tackles this line of thinking by stating “Arguing that you don’t care about
the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t
care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

I would like to argue the opposite, online privacy is of pivotal importance, and urge internet
users to protect their privacy and for specific activities also use tools that ensure their
anonymity online. Here are just a few reasons.

Data is valuable:
Data is the New Oil of the Digital Economy.[1] Companies are making a fortune from their
user’s data, which is good for the economy but bad for users.

This is bad because most companies do not ensure adequate security measures, this
means that they can be hacked and the data can be used for personal exploitation from
criminals, this can especially be an issue for sensitive data. Some companies even sell
their users’ data to third parties.

As we know knowledge is power, and data is knowledge. From gathering your data, the
government and businesses get to analyze and profile you. In the wrong hands, this
information can be used to stir you into the directions they want, whether it be to alter your
shopping habits to the way you think and vote.

Reputation Management:
It is highly crucial for all of us to be able to manage our reputation to a certain extent.
Without privacy that is not possible, we would not want people to know everything we do
in our spare time or be harshly judged for something innocent we do which happens to be
stigmatized in the community we live.
Take for example Ashley Payne, a teacher who was forced to resign after her pictures of
her vacation in Europe became public, they were pictures of her drinking which in most
places would be considered tame and acceptable, yet she was forced to resign. [2] When
it comes to reputation, one’s careless actions in an earlier age might haunt them tomorrow.

Identity Protection:
We live in a world where there are still many authoritarian regimes, where citizens can be
unjustly persecuted for their behavior, it helps enormously if one can hide their identity
when criticizing their regime or engaging in harmless activity such as social media, which
happens to be considered illegal in their country.

Anonymity also helps greatly when doing research on certain sensitive topics; it also
encourages active participation and creativity. Activities which most people would not do
under their real name, due to lack of confidence, fear of stigmatization or any other
reasons, one example would be writing erotic novels.

Concluding Remarks
Online Privacy and Anonymity allow people to focus freely on things they want to do and
develop themselves, whether it be professionally, creatively or for entertainment. It’s also
a way to express controversial, unpopular opinions without being harassed or silenced.

No doubt there are also those who misuse privacy and anonymity, but just because there
are some bad apples does not mean we should entirely censor the internet. Instead,
governments should try to enforce adequate data protection laws.

Until proper legislation and protection are in place, it is best to take matters into your own
hands and ensure your online privacy, by using different tools such as Tor, VPNs, Proxies
and other tools. You may visit vpnalert.com for more information about online privacy.

https://www.tech21century.com/why-you-should-stay-anonymous-online/