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!