Imaginary anonymity
Nowadays, the issue of strengthening control over Internet users is often raised. It is argued by the spread of piracy, pornography, spam and many other reasons. Human rights defenders speak out in defense of users, because making such a decision violates human rights, and the users themselves do not want total control over them. This article will discuss what anonymity is, for whom it is beneficial and what happens if you get rid of it. This article does not provoke action, but is of a purely rational nature.
Checking anonymity today is quite simple; you can do this with the help of the whoer.net resource; in order to understand why such resources are necessary, you need to know what is meant by the word anonymity on the modern Internet.
A user who visits the Internet is only formally anonymous. The main user ID in the network is the ip-address. The provider can easily record all user actions and store the received information for a long time. Free email services not only fix logs and fully track email traffic, but also analyze your correspondence (using special algorithms) to show you the most suitable advertisements. If for any reason your correspondence is interested in the special services, then your mailbox will always be under their control. This also applies to IM services, social networks, forum posts, etc. All Internet portals with a large number of audience collect and analyze information about their users on an ongoing basis and unobtrusively offer you advertising that may interest you. All this already provides for control, while the user does not even suspect about it.
Imagine what happens to the user when visiting an online store. It is enough to look at information about any product, for example, Samsung TV, then, having entered this online store in a month, the user will be offered a discount or a special offer on Samsung TV, which ends one of these days and if the user does not hurry, then there is no fixable :) At the same time, the user will think how lucky he is that he re-entered this resource, since he wanted to buy this thing for a long time. In this case, the owner of the online store will calculate the profits from the sale and, undoubtedly, will once again be convinced of the correctness of the acquisition of an expensive system for tracking potential consumers. And clearing cookies or deleting temporary files will not save you. Control systems have long been used, whose work is based not only on the user's ip-address and does not depend on the presence of cookies.
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Undoubtedly, there can be a huge number of examples; we have considered only the most obvious options.
But examples of how the possibility of being anonymous is used by advanced users, and almost all of these examples are purely destructive:
First of all, tightening control is unprofitable for criminal communities that use the Internet for their own selfish purposes. Secondly, it is unprofitable for developers of anti-virus software and programs, since they receive impressive revenues from the sale of programs that supposedly can fight with malicious programs. Thirdly, OS manufacturers will suffer, as they regularly offer to purchase new software for consumers, arguing that the old has become vulnerable and cannot withstand modern threats. Also, businessmen who track the movement of users, which is illegal, as well as manufacturers of prohibited goods that implement its implementation via the Internet would suffer from increased control. Undoubtedly, representatives of the gambling business, who have long realized that the Internet is the best platform for generating income from human weaknesses, will also fall into the group of dissatisfied people for tightening control. Also this group will include radical organizations for which the Internet is the best platform for searching for co-religionists. Many people will be surprised, but it is not profitable for government officials, who receive money for struggling with the problems that currently occur in the network. Consequently, the tightening is not beneficial to everyone except ordinary users of the network who want to live peacefully, as required by the principles of morality and ethics, but without relying on the morality of the virtual world.
Undoubtedly, each user has a question, how can one solve the problems that have arisen? There are a lot of options for solving the problem, and it is difficult to predict which option will be used.
The most effective and fairly simple method of solving a problem is a small modernization of the protocols, thanks to which network devices will identify users, from wherever they can enter the Internet and identify services, wherever they are located, and information will be stored in base. Consequently, when switching to a resource, it will communicate what data to transition to it must be provided, and you have the right to provide this data or refuse to switch to a resource, that is, it turns out that everything is transparent. Immediately disappear viruses and spam, since there will be a platform for their development. In this case, all this can already be applied today and quite fruitfully used within the existing Internet network, and not wait for a variety of effective Internet development.
Checking anonymity today is quite simple; you can do this with the help of the whoer.net resource; in order to understand why such resources are necessary, you need to know what is meant by the word anonymity on the modern Internet.
A user who visits the Internet is only formally anonymous. The main user ID in the network is the ip-address. The provider can easily record all user actions and store the received information for a long time. Free email services not only fix logs and fully track email traffic, but also analyze your correspondence (using special algorithms) to show you the most suitable advertisements. If for any reason your correspondence is interested in the special services, then your mailbox will always be under their control. This also applies to IM services, social networks, forum posts, etc. All Internet portals with a large number of audience collect and analyze information about their users on an ongoing basis and unobtrusively offer you advertising that may interest you. All this already provides for control, while the user does not even suspect about it.
Imagine what happens to the user when visiting an online store. It is enough to look at information about any product, for example, Samsung TV, then, having entered this online store in a month, the user will be offered a discount or a special offer on Samsung TV, which ends one of these days and if the user does not hurry, then there is no fixable :) At the same time, the user will think how lucky he is that he re-entered this resource, since he wanted to buy this thing for a long time. In this case, the owner of the online store will calculate the profits from the sale and, undoubtedly, will once again be convinced of the correctness of the acquisition of an expensive system for tracking potential consumers. And clearing cookies or deleting temporary files will not save you. Control systems have long been used, whose work is based not only on the user's ip-address and does not depend on the presence of cookies.
')
Undoubtedly, there can be a huge number of examples; we have considered only the most obvious options.
But examples of how the possibility of being anonymous is used by advanced users, and almost all of these examples are purely destructive:
- widespread distribution of content that is protected by law. A huge number of users by means of P2P networks illegally download software, music, books, films and bring huge financial losses to the copyright holders. It is necessary to understand that by downloading a movie or a book, the user violates the law, while this neglect of the law is transmitted to the children. Think about how a child grows up when he watches his parents every day to commit a crime;
- there is a growing threat to children, as there is easily accessible information that can adversely affect their health, psychological and moral condition. On many resources posted ads of alcohol, tobacco and drugs. The network houses many resources of radical associations and organizations, sects, which are trying to find supporters of their ideology. Such examples can be listed for a long time;
- distribution of spam, spyware and various viruses from which no network user is insured;
- the threat of cyberterrorism, which also cannot be ignored. An example of this is the Japanese terrorist organization Aum Shinrikyo, which organized the terrorist attack in the Tokyo Metro in 1995. Before the attack was carried out, a system was created that intercepted police radio stations, made it possible to study the mail of the police and tracked the movements of police crews. Of course, such situations do not occur very often and their units, but as practice has shown, the threat really exists.
First of all, tightening control is unprofitable for criminal communities that use the Internet for their own selfish purposes. Secondly, it is unprofitable for developers of anti-virus software and programs, since they receive impressive revenues from the sale of programs that supposedly can fight with malicious programs. Thirdly, OS manufacturers will suffer, as they regularly offer to purchase new software for consumers, arguing that the old has become vulnerable and cannot withstand modern threats. Also, businessmen who track the movement of users, which is illegal, as well as manufacturers of prohibited goods that implement its implementation via the Internet would suffer from increased control. Undoubtedly, representatives of the gambling business, who have long realized that the Internet is the best platform for generating income from human weaknesses, will also fall into the group of dissatisfied people for tightening control. Also this group will include radical organizations for which the Internet is the best platform for searching for co-religionists. Many people will be surprised, but it is not profitable for government officials, who receive money for struggling with the problems that currently occur in the network. Consequently, the tightening is not beneficial to everyone except ordinary users of the network who want to live peacefully, as required by the principles of morality and ethics, but without relying on the morality of the virtual world.
Undoubtedly, each user has a question, how can one solve the problems that have arisen? There are a lot of options for solving the problem, and it is difficult to predict which option will be used.
The most effective and fairly simple method of solving a problem is a small modernization of the protocols, thanks to which network devices will identify users, from wherever they can enter the Internet and identify services, wherever they are located, and information will be stored in base. Consequently, when switching to a resource, it will communicate what data to transition to it must be provided, and you have the right to provide this data or refuse to switch to a resource, that is, it turns out that everything is transparent. Immediately disappear viruses and spam, since there will be a platform for their development. In this case, all this can already be applied today and quite fruitfully used within the existing Internet network, and not wait for a variety of effective Internet development.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/106954/
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