Online Personas - The coming-out stories of anonymous bloggers

[CelticDawn]

Blog fans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, saw PittGirl as their masked superhero -- a comedian and local commentator who jibed the mayor without reserve and ranted freely about her hatred of pigeons.
Virginia Montanez says she was fired because she revealed her identity as a local blogger.

Virginia Montanez says she was fired because she revealed her identity as a local blogger.

But despite her effort to keep her real name secret, people started to figure out who PittGirl was.

Feeling pressure to take control of her identity before someone else outed her, PittGirl on Wednesday posted pictures of herself on her blog and introduced readers to her real-world self: Virginia Montanez, a 35-year-old married mother of two who worked in the nonprofit sector.

"My friends and family call me Ginny," she wrote on her blog. "But you can continue to call me Your Majesty, because I've grown accustomed."

On Thursday morning, Montanez was fired from her job because of her online persona, she said.

Montanez's and other online coming-out stories highlight the complicated way people view anonymity on the Internet and the high stakes that come with trying to keep up an online persona.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/21/outing.anonymous.bloggers/index.html

[CelticDawn]

No true anonymity

That case, and similar ones before it, send the message that the cloak of online anonymity easily can be lifted, said Judith Donath, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

But it's difficult to say whether the Web is becoming more or less anonymous, she said.

"What's increasing is the range of forums and the types of anonymous environments people have to choose among," she said.

Some sites, like Facebook, encourage people to give lots of information about their real-world selves. Blogs are more of a mixed bag, she said, where many people write under assumed names or put their words in the mouths of invented characters.

But such split identities can easily be merged -- either through the judicial process or by using technology.

Courts have set general guidelines that a plaintiff must meet before forcing a person out of online anonymity. But the rules are still in the making and are up for interpretation, said Daniel Solove, a law professor at the George Washington University Law School and author of "The Future of Reputation."

On one end of the spectrum, a court could out a blogger simply because a legal action is filed against the person. That's troublesome because any good attorney could leverage the courts simply to expose a person's identity, he said.

At the other extreme, a judge could say a plaintiff must prove the blogger defamed someone before forcing a company like Google to reveal the person's identity.

[bearwds]

I think any expectation of privacy is taken at one's own peril.


bear

[SKARDYKAT]

Susan43 is really known as Slutty Susan in the sea man community.

Baltoman99 is aka Inmate#23673. After his numerous arrests for public intoxication and domestic abuse, he is well known in his town.

Ortiga is really known as Psychotic Sally. Alaska has posted border patrols all along the state due to ortiga's increasing obsession with Sarah Palin.

:confused: And, that has what to do with our boards or the opinions of our contributors? We just address the issues at hand.

[warhorse46]

I see we have trolls trolling bait on the boards tonight.

[CelticDawn]

I think any expectation of privacy is taken at one's own peril.


bear

It can in some cases be a big mistake to let ones identity be known on a message board, blog, or anywhere else on the internet where there are people who are a little too nosy.

However, some very good friendships can be formed too......despite the fact that you have to be really careful.