Post on 18-Jan-2016
Anonymity & Privacy
With that horrible guy from the Internet
4chan
In three slides…
Primer
• 4chan is a collection of image boards• Assorted topics, ranging from anime and manga,
to music, origami, automobiles, and photography• Photography—I meant pornography• Most people know 4chan only as “/b/”
• What makes it special?• Essentially zero barrier to entry• Anybody can post, no registration*• Format unlike phpBB, vBulletin, etc.
Stats
• Five years old as of this month (October 1st)
• Serves approx. 300 million impressions to about 4.2 million unique visitors per month; 1.2 billion to 10 million in past quarter (Google Analytics)
• 180 million posts total, ranked as 3rd largest BBS (Big-Boards)
• Users make over 375,000 posts per day (4chan)• At one point ranked as 58th largest site in US (Alexa)• Majority male, 18-35, most popular in the US, Canada,
and UK (comScore)
Why do people care?
• Great question!
• Memes/Internet culture:• Better examples: LOLcats, Rickroll, Tay
“Chocolate Rain” Zonday, “Anonymous” (group)
• Not so appealing culture:• Threats, rumors, and invasions
moot in three bullets…
• 20
• Legal name, “Christopher Poole?”
•
• Single
• This is starting to read like a craigslist ad
That was five bullets, shh
Anonymous BBS
• Dial-up BBS• USENET• I’m no expert, but Jason Scott is!
• For our purposes: 2channel – 2ch.net• aka, “Channel 2”, “2ch”
• …and: Futaba Channel – 2chan.net• aka, “2chan”
Anonymity
Japanese ‘net culture• THEY LOVE ANONYMITY• See 2channel, mixi – mixi.jp
• Hiroyuki Nishimura, founder of 2channel:
“If there is a user ID attached to a user, a discussion tends to become a criticizing game. On the other hand, under the anonymous system, even though your opinion/information is criticized, you don't know with whom to be upset. Also with a user ID, those who participate in the site for a long time tend to have authority, and it becomes difficult for a user to disagree with them. Under a perfectly anonymous system, you can say, "it's boring," if it is actually boring. All information is treated equally; only an accurate argument will work.”
– Japan Media Review, August 2003
Why do we like it?
Shii says:• Registration keeps out good posters.• Registration lets in bad posters.• Registration attracts trolls.• Anonymity counters vanity.
My favorite examples:• Gen[M]ay – www.genmay.net• SA Forums – forums.somethingawful.com
Why is it a horrible idea?
• Look at 4chan. Seriously.
• People use it for great things,
see: uncensored creativity, whistle blowing
• People use it for less than great things,
ie.: illegal, a la Jake Brahm
Privacy
Privacy: You have none
• Anonymity and privacy are interchangeable, right?
Wrong.
• Anonymity is as private as you make it
Friggin’ fine print…
• Privacy and Data Retention Policies are two extremely important things you’ve never bothered to read
• Don’t assume that a site purporting to be “anonymous” or “private” actually is
• Great example: 4chan!
But I thought 4chan was “anonymous”?
• Yes and no
• Anonymous to others (if you choose to be)• But not to me!• 4chan is public, your posts are not private
• Our policy for dealing with law enforcement requests is on the FAQ page. Think anybody reads it?
• People automatically assume an “anonymous” website will protect them from repercussions. Horrible assumption—these people find themselves in jail sooner or later.
• This can be applied to many other sites
If you care about your privacy online
Finally, I get to plug these:
• Tor – torproject.org
• EFF – eff.org
• Ironically, 4chan blocks Tor—go figure
…and now, to answer some of the questions submitted before class.
Q&A
Hopefully that wasn’t a giant waste of your time.
Thanks for listening!