Maintain Anonymity On The Internet

Here I go preaching yet again urging people to retain as much privacy as possible while on the internet. Want more reasons?

The Daily Mail- March 14, 2014: "Utah mom finds her image on 'revenge porn' website after receiving emails from men across the world propositioning her for sex - but the images were stolen and the body isn't even hers""Esplin is one of hundreds - if not thousands - of victims of a new extortion scheme where 'revenge porn' websites take innocent, fully clothed photos of women and crop their heads onto another woman's naked body. They then post the photos on their websites with the woman's full name, city and other contact information. If the woman complains, the owner of the website will often charge her a fee - oftentimes hundreds of dollars - to remove the photos."The Daily Mail- March 14,2014: "Plus-size blogger's rage after diet company stole her image to promote products""Plus-size blogger Rachele Cateyes has told of her horror after finding out that a diet company was using this bikini shot of her without permission to show customers what they 'don't want to look like'.I began my earliest presence on the internet using both 'Compuserve' and 'AOL' software at separate times. Both of these service providers identified users by their screen names only. This was not only the default setting but was highly encouraged by both companies. There was a reason both saw fit do things that way. It was to protect their clients. Since that time people have voluntarily chosen to go in the complete opposite direction via 'Facebook', 'Twitter', etc.

Want a few more reasons?* Do you really want strangers, bill collectors, banks, employers and ex-lovers to know every one of your habits, contacts, friends, health conditions, where you are going or currently hanging out?

* Why make it easy for scammers who then armed with enough information can call, email and find all kinds of nefarious ways to make your life hell?

* There's no internet filter that can determine mentally unstable people, who having access to the internet may become obsessed with someone.

What was good sound business practice and advice back then applies today just as well as it did back then. No one would think of walking around a dangerous unknown neighborhood with a name tag showing their address, phone number, daily travels, personal activities along with potentially exposing all their friends' information as well. Yet this is exactly what people do when they troll the internet and do not safeguard themselves.

It's called the 'super information highway' for a reason!