EFF Guide To Blogging Anonymously

jacksonwest writes "Annalee Newitz and Kurt Opsahl just published a great how-to on blogging anonymously. How To Blog Safely About Work (Or Anything Else), covering both the legal and technical aspects of blogging about your job and staying truly anonymous. A must read for those blogging from or about their office."

Comments

Too bad

[thundercatslair]

that this person didn't see this article earlier

Re:Too bad

[CSMastermind]

oo Wow. You know I disagree. I think she made the right decission to not post anonymously. If you look at the site there's nothing wrong with the pictures. It's not like she was hurting the company name by doing it and on a personal note, if I was in her place, I wouldn't want to work for them after they did that. I don't know, I'm proud of who I am, both in real life and online, I'm not afraid to take credit for what I say but that doesn't mean I don't from time to time need to do things anonymously.

Just be careful

[lecithin]

We always 'google' our perspective new-hires. People have been not hired because of the content discovered.

Just be careful in what you do, and it should be good.

Maturity rather than Anonymnity

[buckhead_buddy]

The whiners who make up details about their boss, give away corporate secrets, or try to attack someone in an unfair manner are what should stop. There are many people's weblog entries I've read where they sound like spoiled brats. Comments and trackbacks indicate that they're writing this out of a self-esteem problem or just a nasty streak of insanity.

But there are many ways to write a negative web log that still tries to be completely fair and see things from the other person's point of view. I read a number of these (I actually started reading their logs for some tech project they were on but kept on after finding out that they have lives that don't revolve around first person shooters). They seem to write out of a need to get some sort of honesty about what's going on.

One fellow in particular that I enjoy reading writes about his boss, problem clients, assertive sex partners, and demanding family members. He's fun to read because he's figured out that in most cases he is the "problem" rather than all of these people he writes about. He is, after all, the only common link between all of these problematic things. When he writes about a stressful change at work he's not bitching about "the worst decision his boss ever made" but rather "a change his boss made that eluded his understanding".

If I were a future employer and came across his blog, the level of maturity he displayed would go a lot further than whether he mentioned someone by name. Not everyone's that way, but jeez, if you are completely anonymous writing stuff seems like a waste of time.

If you want to leak a secret wrongdoing, send it to a reporter's email address. If you want to write about your stresses and successes, do so in a mature way. If you want to bitch and moan and try to assasinate someone's integrity, be prepared to take the consequences for your juvenile tantrums.

Pseudonymity

[backslashdot]

Advice to Chinese dissidents: If you are going to be anonymous, use a pseudonym and digitally sign your stuff .. so that others know it's actually you and/or your dissident group .. that way you can build credibility with a reduced chance of being screwed.

Being totally anonymous isn't very effective, unless what you are saying can really stand on it's own (that is, it's stating provable logic rather than facts/events).

That's against the law

[John Seminal]

We always 'google' our perspective new-hires. People have been not hired because of the content discovered.

You can't lawfully do that. If someone found out, they could sue you and whoever posted the information for defimation. It is the reason why former employers never can say anything bad about a former employees.

Likewise, my personal opinions have nothing to do with my ability to do a job. Googeling to find out what political party a person belongs to, their world views, and the like is a bad practice. I know of a guy who sued a company because they asked for his social security number on an application, then did not offer him work. According to state law, that is illegal. The only reason to ask for a social security number is to pay taxes, and an employer that asks for it is implying they have offered you a job. Same thing goes for asking about marital status, or age.

People should know thier rights and sue when violated. Otherwise corporations will keep crapping on people, paying less money, forcing people to get work as contractors, hiring temps, and the like. It all means the death of good paying jobs with health care and job security.

Re:That's against the law

[norton_I]

You can't lawfully do that. If someone found out, they could sue you and whoever posted the information for defimation. It is the reason why former employers never can say anything bad about a former employees.

Only if the information is false. The truth is an absolute defense against all defamation and libel suits. Even so, I doubt the prospective employer can be held accountable in most cases. However, a person (or former employer) saying something bad that is false (or not provably true) about someone, which causes them to not get hired is definately actionable.

Now, there are certain types of information which you are not allowed to make hiring decisions on, but those are a specifically enumerated list (age, race, sex, religion, marital status, intent to have children, medical conditions, etc.). Asking about those on a job application is illegal, and if you can show that a prospective employer found this information on Google and probably used it to discriminate against you, then you have a suit.

If, however, I use google to find a web page you wrote 5 years ago about how you hate puppies, and do not hire you, I am almost certain that is legal. I have a friend who was essentially fired for not cutting his hair (he was an hourly employee and they refused to schedule him any hours until he cut it). There is no legal recourse unless you can claim that the discrimination falls under one of the recognized and protected categories (ie. "my religion prevents me from cutting my hair").

Also, consider that you can be denied employment for refusing or failing a drug test, even though your guild has not been legally proven. I personally think this is a travesty, but it is not illegal.

Slashdot AC policy

[jay-be-em]

I was curious as to what Slashdot's IP logging policy is, particularly for AC posts. From the faq, fyi:

We log the usual stuff (IP, page, time, user, page views, moderation, and comment posting, mainly). A few other odds and ends too, but mostly the data is used to make moderation possible. We keep the logs for 48 hours.