Sometimes us folks with mental illness want to blog anonymously, particularly about details of our illness or coping with it. We can have really valid concerns about how blogging could potentially affect our ability to get work, or maybe allow abusers to track us down, or things along those lines. It’s ok to be private online with anonymity. Here are some tips about how to help stay anonymous online especially with blogging.
- Get a second browser for your anonymous identity, and make that the only browser you ever use for anything to do with your anonymous blog.
Never use it for anything but that anony-you, but ALWAYS use it for your anonymous blogging identity. If you use normally Internet Explorer for your “regular” web surfing or blogging, then use another one for your anony-stuff. Never use that second browser for your “regular” stuff. By using different browsers consistently for your anony-stuff you’re less likely you’ll accidentally forget to sign out of something and blow your own cover, or to be figured out by at people you don’t wan to do so. Other browsers are FireFox , Safari, Opera, or Chrome, or another one. - Get a free email for your anony-you.
You’ll need it to sign up for your anony-blog, and any services related to it. Never use it for anything but your anony-stuff, and always do use it for your anony-stuff. - Use different passwords for anything to do with anony-you stuff. That way you can’t accidentially log in to your “regular” blog or bloglines or whatever with the wrong password.
- Use a different blogging service for your anony-blog.
Some highly rated free blogging services are Blogger, Wordpress.com, and LiveJournal. I’ve heard good things about Multiply too, but don’t know much about it really. - Keep your lips zipped about things that could blow your anonymity when blogging.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it can be easy to forget at times. Things to keep in mind are…- Don’t mention identifiable things in any detail: where you live unless it’s a large enough area it’s reasonable there could be a bunch of you with the same issues; real names of your or your friends or family; your work except in the vaguest of ways such as “I work for a bank”.
- Don’t put photos of yourself or anyone you know personally on your anony-blog.
- Be prepared to say “I’m not comfortable sharing that” when people ask about confidential information. People will ask, and keeping your privacy requires that you keep it too.
Those are things you can do it make anonymity easier with less hassle. Keep in mind, though, that anonymity online is not perfect. So don’t share anything that you truly can’t stand not to possibly out in public.
Babbled by Immi.
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Great tips, Immi
Cool Polars last blog post..In memoriam
These are great tips if you need that anonymity. In fact there are further steps you can take as well. Seems some of your tips were related to the possibility that the staff at your blog host might find your identity, and it’s possible. Some of those people are less than scrupulous and they have the skills to circumvent some safety steps.
Another layer of security is to get an anonymous proxy account. There are lots of free services run by the Open Source community and other Internet tech do-gooders, where you can get a proxy setting added to your Internet connection that makes it so not even the people who run websites can figure out where or who you are. I have never used those services, because I don’t worry about my anonymity, so your mileage may vary.
If you’re interested, Google for things like “free anonymous proxy” or some such.
Nathan Hawkss last blog post..Anger is Valid
Great tips – and some ones I haven’t heard before too, well done.
Not that I bother with anonymity! LOL, pretty much anyone can google me and figure out my life, something tells me that might come back to bite me one day… oh well.
I write under a nom de plume. Not because I am ashamed of my mental diagnoses, or my blog. It’s just that the two people in my family who no longer want me in their lives, my father and sister, are computer savvy.
On the other hand, I enjoy a relationship with my mother that I treasure. I write about my life with Bipolar II Disorder, and how poorly my family has handled it. I do not wish to hurt my mother, who is torn already, between me, her husband and her other daughter.
I chose the name from my father’s side of the family. The family he is also estranged from. There were books written about them, as early bohemians. Ironically, “bohemian” is one of the reasons my father put forth as to why he no longer wishes to see me. Him being a bourgeoise, you see.
Dano MacNammarahs last blog post..Grandpa Eric, RAF Bomber and WWII POW.
@Cool Polar – Thanks!
@Nathan – Actually I wasn’t concerned with the blog host per se, but more using a different blogging service to keep things sorted both in your head and avoiding accidents like following mh blogs in blogger with your “regular” identity if you have one. Or if the blog is hosted independently, ICANN becomes an issue if you own your domain name. Things like that. Less that scrupulous blog hosts, IT people at your ISP, etc. can almost always figure out who you are if they really want. Thanks for the open proxy tip too!
@Jacqui – LOL In some ways it’s much easier not bothering with anonymity. And if that works for you, have at it girlfriend!
@Dano – Using a nom de plume is ok for whatever reason you want to use it. I don’t think it follows that using a nom de plume means being ashamed. I take it as meaning you want you privacy for whatever private reasons.
When borrowing or sharing a computer, make sure the previous person online was logged out of everything!
<3 BL
Border Lifes last blog post..Poorest Rich Person
@BL – Yipes, that too. I’m really glad you mentioned that. Along those lines, you may also want to clear your cache and browsing history after you use a shared pc.