Security vs. Privacy vs. Anonymity

[mark-lamorey]

I am looking to start a conversation....
I think I got those (Security vs. Privacy vs. Anonymity) in the right order - most difficulty in the last, easiest in the first.
Should they all be readily available to everyone on the net ?

For my $0.02 - Security YES, Privacy yes, Anonymity sometimes

Obviously, all answers need to be qualified and nobody want to write a book...

[Bucky Ball]

... and obviously all posters should keep this in mind, from the forum Code of Conduct:


Politics: This topic has caused serious problems in the past, and as such is subject to tight control. Discussion of the politics of open source is permissible within the Ubuntu/Linux and Other OS forum, no other political posting is permitted in any form in any other area of the forum.

Please don't go there, but with a conversation starter like the first post, might not end well. :-k

For what it's worth, I'd put the three in that order and yes. Qualifier? Cos that's how I roll ... ;)

[EnglishElectricAndy]

The difficulty with these kind of discussions is that peoples interpretations of these three factors will vary. Indeed the priority placed on each can vary according to what one is doing at any given time.

For instance, if I am conducting online banking then security will be my most important consideration along with privacy. Anonymity would be self-defeating in this environment as the bank would need to verify that I am who I say I am and vice versa.

If privacy is more generally defined as freedom from pop-ups or other annoying intrusions then there is a wide collection of extensions that mitigate most of these pests.

https://panopticlick.eff.org/ can be quite an eye-opener as to how much (or little) anonymity can be achieved.

[vasa1]

... Security vs. Privacy vs. Anonymity ...
How would you distinguish between privacy and anonymity?

[fkkroundabout]

it's interesting because anonymity is privacy - if there is no identification then there can be nothing to attach your activity to
but privacy does not necessarily mean anonymity - if your identity is confirmed officially but there is enouigh encryption in place so that no one can see your activity

but yes i think they should all be available to everyone on the internet. i am well aware that people abuse it, but i think that's the price of a greater good in the name of digital rights

i suppose i have put across quite a libertarian perspective here, but i just believe they have turned into kind of human rights, as the internet has grown up

[EnglishElectricAndy]

At risk of venturing down a philosophical rabbit-hole, my dusty old paper edition of Rogets Thesaurus suggests that privacy and anonymity are not entirely interchangeable.

[mark-lamorey]

I think you can make arguments that security is required for privacy and privacy is require for anonymity. But this is kind of a stacking Russian doll question.
Security by definition is being free from danger or threat
Privacy is the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people
Anonymity is the stat of being anonymous [anonymous is not being identified by name]

I would make the argument that all 3 of the states / definitions are not absolutely attainable in the real or digital world.
Also that while you can obtain any 1 state for a moment in time, it may not hold - say an old e-mail that only used 16 bit encryption for example. These states are dynamic through time.

I think my original post was somewhat philosophical but also around what is the best approach for security.

[EnglishElectricAndy]

The Internet...

Is it a means of publishing/broadcasting?...

.. or a means of establishing one-to-one communication where interception requires significant commitment on the part of those seeking to intercept?

I'm old enough to remember the heyday of CB radio (though I can't remember all the lingo) "Hey this is Meat Wagon on the Stringway, come back" and sometimes there would be a reply, a connection made and an exchange of information. The internet is these days seems to me to be a vastly enlarged and much more sophisticated equivalent, but the key thing is... Broadcasting, by definition, is not private.

A difficulty arises when big business sees the net as a means of improving profits by not having to run local shops or contact points that require actual staff that require actual wages, and said businesses try to run transactions that normally would be confidential on a one-to-one basis on a network that is more suited to publishing and broadcasting.

I certainly wouldn't want to run my banking activities over CB radio....

[/ADM]

Security yes, privacy yes (family emails etc) but anonymity, no. Those who strive to be anonymous confuse me a bit. Why? Do they go into their banks or do their shopping with a mask?

[sudodus]

Some of them do, but they are not very popular ;-)

[mastablasta]

Those who strive to be anonymous confuse me a bit. Why? Do they go into their banks or do their shopping with a mask?

ha, ha, ha....

well that's a good point and well presented.

[Bucky Ball]

Do they go into their banks or do their shopping with a mask?

Ha. I used to, but kept getting tackled to the ground by armed security personnel.

[bashiergui]

Some of them do, but they are not very popular ;-)True but they are legion :D

[uRock]

How would you distinguish between privacy and anonymity?

I would consider privacy to be, "nobody can see my data," be it local or networked. This would include a requirement of authentication, authorization, and accountability.

Anonymity, "nobody can see what I'm doing," would have none of the AAA attributes, because the intent would be to leave no evidence connecting the user with his/her activities.

[rrnbtter]

Greetings,
Anonymity is like going to a news paper rack and buying a paper and going home and reading it. It's no body's business what part I read, how I found it interesting or how I derived it''s meaning, nor my motives for reading it in the first place. To spy on the news stand to see who is buying may involve privacy but all of the rest is anonymity. The reason why anonymity is so important is that ...... Wait! I think I heard a black Helicopter flying overhead!