Problems with anonymity Analysis/Humor With six billion people alive today, you wouldn't think anyone would have trouble being anonymous. But when I went in search of anonymity, it proved amazingly elusive. I began by visiting the Webroot Software site, which promotes the Anonymizer Window Washer program. Its promise sounded too good to be true: on-the-fly browser sanitizing, cache purging, and temporary file destruction -- it even promised to empty the recycle bin. But, uh-uh, no dice, when I attempted a free trial download, a nice ASCII page told me I lacked the wherewithal to access the secure server. I even gave away my email address to accomplish this daring feat. (Why anyone should reveal his identity to remain anonymous sure beats the heck out of me.) Next, the Anonymizer site (http://www.anonymizer.com/ 3.0/ index.shtml) offered to tell me exactly what a snoop might learn about me via Java scripts and blablabla, hocus-pocus, and other erudite peeping-tom ploys. A snooping site could find out the address, name, and domain particulars of my Internet Provider. Like I care? Next, he, she, or it might learn that I was using Mozilla 4.61 (Netscape), including browser resolution, and Windows 95 with a barrelful of plug-ins. Did I still care? Okay, okay, so I'm a nobody with a Microsoft operating system. Does that always lead to a dossier with Interpol? But some of the information available to just anyone looking in was a little unnerving. They could even trace the route I was using to arrive at their Web server. Incidentally, the real hint to Web sites learning anything relevant about you is what you tell them by typing into form windows and leaving browser "cookies" turned on. Host servers will be able to send you a timed email that directs a return to their site, and they might even learn which sites you've visited recently. This, I tell myself, is where I draw the line. Where do they get off tailing me like a cheap detective? So I decided to go underground on the Net. I used the surf box at Anonymizer.com (surf free option). Sure enough, after I typed "Morrock.com," I was directed to the Morrock site, newly enhanced with an ersatz banner heralding Anonymizer's paid services. Later, when I examined the "Tools," "History" option on my browser, my history list showed Morrock News Service, minus a domain address. Was this really helpful? They knew where I'd been, but didn't know how I had gotten there. Now I'm thinking of getting plastic surgery and moving to Mars. September 29, 1999