Those who believe that cyberspace is the great opportunity to “disappear” (hiding their identity) are sorely mistaken. The conscription of providers (i.e., the data of their customers) is a well-known tactic. However, it is likely that such a thing is not even necessary.
A team of cyber-researchers from the American universities of Stanford and Princeton completed an “identity recognition” experiment last October using only their “browsing history”, including Twitter usage. They built a suitable algorithm and a website, asking volunteers to visit it anonymously, with the researchers’ only assistance being the users’ consent to use their “history”. On the first day the site was live, 11 out of 13 visitors were successfully identified (i.e., full name). By the end of the experiment, almost 300 Internet users had visited the site; 80 % of them were successfully identified.
The experiment was part of a broader study on the actual state of privacy in cyberspace. Stanford researcher Ansh Shukla hopes that when people realize how easy it is to trace their “footprints” on the internet, they will become more careful in their usage. That it will be used less for searching selected topics, and not as a cure for boredom.
It’s just that we assume something like this presupposes a new grounding of the value of privacy. Because, for the time being, the old idea of it is being demolished with giggles.