anonymity advocacy

A quick trip report from the National Network to End Domestic Violence training conference. I gave a series of presentations to the people who help victims of abuse. The day started off with an introduction to the technology issues surrounding victims of abuse and stalking. An overview of the challenges they face, the methods that are used against them, and the "dark side" of technologies such as RFID, Bluetooth, and GPS.

My presentation was an overview of Tor, online anonymity, and places to find more information. The afternoon sessions covered the legal environment and risks for victims. The speakers covered online harassment, the plights of women on welfare and their oppression via technology ("the new punitiveness" as it was termed), and a quick hypothetical situation about jilted lovers and their legal recourse; from both sides.

Overall, it was a great set of new organizations and people to meet for the Tor Project.

Update: NNEDV has posted some of their extensive documents online for review.

Here's a timely reminder of why anonymous publishing tools like Tor
are so critical to free expression. A recent book, Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature, covers the history of anonymous publication in English literature, noting that many authors and publishers were imprisoned, tortured, or killed for expressing politically unpopular views.

Risking execution
In the current London Review of Books Terry Eagleton writes on the history of publishing books anonymously:

There were … legal and political reasons for the ubiquity of Anon. There were times when the state needed to know the author or printer of a work in order to know who to prosecute for heresy or sedition. In 1579, John Stubbs had his right hand cut off for writing a work opposing the marriage of Elizabeth I to a French nobleman. Elizabeth herself urged that the printers of the anti-Anglican Marprelate tracts should be subjected to torture. In 1663, a London printer who published a pamphlet which argued that the monarch should be accountable to his subjects, and justified the people’s right to rebellion, was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. He refused, even so, to reveal the name of the pamphlet’s author, though the disclosure might have saved his life. Between the 16th and the 18th century, printers were fined, imprisoned and pilloried for publishing supposedly treasonable works whose authors remained concealed. Being Jonathan Swift’s printer was not a job for the faint-hearted.

Looking for modern parallels, can you imagine the head of an ISP risking execution to defend the anonymity of a person publishing something via their servers when a government or company takes exception to it? read more »