To Be Anonymous or Not To Be, That is the Question
To Be Anonymous or Not To Be, That is the Question
  • Michael Kim(michael@koreaittimes.com)
  • 승인 2012.04.17 12:32
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 Anonymity is a double-edged sword in the internet world. For the society which is extremely industrialized and IT-oriented, the anonymity might be a good way to protect individual privacy. If we, however, see the subject from the reversed angle, that can be a cause for the malicious replies to an unspecified number of general public without moral qualms. That is not an easy subject to judge. But, up to this point, the subject could be a matter of choice. Nobody, even it is a government, can easily force people to reveal their identity when they access the internet. That’s why it is still controversial that whether or not we should adopt a law to prohibit people from accessing internet without identifying themselves.

 Here is a hotter issue coming up these days. Another form of use of personal information in the internet activities is the hot potato now. There is an occasion that we have to release our personal information such as banking or stock trading. The financial institutes have to force all the internet users to identifythemselves for the sensitive transactions.

 The dilemma is that thepersonal information could be abused by internet crimes. It’s like a sitting duck. The hackers are getting more elusive at the speed of light. We, however, know that it is sometimes inevitable to gather the personal information to confirm the identities.This is like a mysterious movie which shows its conclusion purposely at the begining. The focal point of the possible controversy is that many profit-pursuing companies gather the personal information without valid reasons and use them as their marketing tools. Sometimes they are attacked by hackers and their database storing tons of informationgoes in the criminal’s hand. After the incident happened, what they do is a simple apology followed by a statement that they are going to put more effort to protect the clients’ information. Is this right

 There is no pure black or genuine white in our lives. We all are running around somewhere between those two colors. There is no absolute virtue or entire evil. Everything surrounds us is the product of compromise. Gathering personal information and using them as a profit-making tool could be a commercial activity. There must be a proper function as it is. But if it produces more adverse effect, people need to consider deeply the reason of its existence. Netizens would admit the necessity of gathering and keeping of the personal information for some occasions. They, however, would furious for the unnecessary information-collecting activities, if it is not maintained properly and securely. Then, don’t we need the stronger law to inhibit the abuse than now

 People make a society. The society shapes people back and it evolves itself by the members’ feedback. How the society shapes people depends on how people make the society first and feedback continuously. If members of the society are neglect to doing their duties, the society retrogresses.

 Your invaluable information such as name, phone number, resident registration number, bank account number, credit card number and much more information is being leaked now without your knowledge. Those may go to the hand of unknown people whose characters are in veil. Are you comfortable with that If not, you should do something now to protect yourself. “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Hamlet had soliloquized around 400 years ago.“To be anonymous or not to be anonymous, that is the question.” This could be a monologue 400 years after Hamlet had soliloquized, which is the era of the world wide web. 


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