I've been thinking about how people can protect their privacy online for quit a while. As you may have noticed, I'm protecting my own identity to a certain degree. Different people have a differing need for privacy online. This article is aimed at celebrities as well as kids and women.

Celebrities:
A lot of celebrities have taken to the net lately. On the net they see a chance for meeting their fans and at the same time remaining out of reach of danger. Because it's so immediate, it's easier than writing snail mail letters. On the internet a short e-mail is not offending. They don't have to write a lot to each fan, and they can use some ploys to keep a lot of fans happy without expending too much perspiration. I'll give you some pointers about that on the Build your image online page.

Everybody:
The first concept you need to learn is IP-numbers. They identify the ISP (Internet Service Provider) you're connecting via. They can be used to identify you, but usually it's not used unless there's a crime involved, because it's often hard identifying the one person (often called user, because you're logging on with a user-name) committing the crime from all the others connecting through the same machine (for more on IP-numbers look at this article I wrote). If you're connecting via a big ISP it isn't a problem that people will know that you're connecting via AOL or some other ISP. However, if you for some reason don't want them to know where you live (what state/province and what city), and you're connecting via a local ISP, you may want to disguise your IP-number.

You can use a different e-mail address than the one you normally use for your friends. Web based e-mail has become all the rage, and many people have lots of e-mail addresses, one for each purpose, and they only use their real address for close friends. It may be a good idea for celebrities too.

The most popular used to be Hotmail, but they tell people your IP-number, so that's no good for this use. The Iname server is better for this purpose (don't remember the address offhand, but you can find it on the AltaVista site). At least when I last used it, it didn't give out your IP-number. However, there's a problem with all these web based e-mail accounts. We've seen a lot of hacks lately, that could jeopardice your security, and give curious people your password and possibly your personal details. These hacks work when you receive mail in your web based e-mail account, not while you're sending it off. For that reason I believe you should take the option of forwarding your mail from for instance AltaVista Iname to your real e-mail address. Then you'll have to do some copy and paste when you write replies, but that should be worth it if it's privacy you want. You can set your e-mail client up to sort e-mail according to the e-mail address people used to e-mail you (that's how I sort out spam, because they often aren't really addressed to you... Be careful and look through the mail headings anyway, because some people use bcc's, and if you don't sort it, you'll loose those personal mails. OK, this is a subject that's too large to get into here).

After you've received mail and want to reply to it, you need to get back into your "anonymous" e-mail account. The easiest is if you write your mail in your favorite text editor while you're offline (cheaper that way), then copy and paste it into your mail when you're online and then send it off.

Celebrites: Of course, when they ask for your address and other details online, you may want to give them your agent's details, that way you're more protected and you're still not defrauding these online services.

Chat

I've tried chatting a few times. There's IRC (Internet Relay Chat), ICQ and chat rooms (I've got a few chat rooms attached to my site as well). But, it didn't grow on me. It's useful when you need to talk to someone in particular online, but it can easily get too intense (at least for me).

The problem with online chat, is that you are tricked into believing you know people a lot better than you really do. The illusion of anonymity is heady, and treacherous. Especially for children, who are often tricked by frauds. Don't give out too much about yourself on online chat's, unless you know who you're talking with (as sometimes on ICQ). Even celebrities sometimes get tricked into releaving too much about themselves on chats or via e-mail. Unless you know for a fact who you're talking with, you shouldn't give out your phone number or your name or you address on online chats. The reason for this is that a lot of sick people are into chatting. They prey on children and women, sometimes even on celebrities. What some of them want is to get close and attach themselves to you. What I get really tired of is the way a lot of men online want to talk dirty, and they don't take no for an answer. Often that doesn't come out until they've talked with you for a while (also via e-mail). Now imagine if they're close by and you don't know. You give them too many details about yourself, and they track you down and expect something in real life? Even when you know the people you're talking to, you may get some surprises after a while. A lot of people get sucked into this virtual world of ours, and want more than we are willing to give. This happens to relatively well adjusted people as well.

A lot of people have had bad experiences online. Harassment is happening on the net, even between complete strangers. Some people latch unto anyone they can reach, because they like harassing people. This could happen in chat rooms, and other parts of the net.

Unwanted/Offensive e-mail
Webpsychos

That said, online chat's are great when structured and kept on a theme that isn't too personal, or between friends in real life who moved too far away from each other.

Stalkers
I'm sure every celebrity has heard about this phenomenon. On the internet it's closely linked with harassment, sometimes that's what it is, sometimes it's just another way of stalking a victim. The interesting part is that it isn't limited to celebrities. Stalkers are often relatively indiscriminate. Also, it doesn't show. Their family may know something's off, but you're unlikely to know. In fact, don't trust anyone, even if they say they're a celebrity. Too easy to cloak your identity on the net. I guess you should be especially careful if somebody says he/she's a celebrity. We've had so many false celebrity relatives, you can't imagine (probably some real ones too). We've had false celebrities as well (that I've come to know about through this site), so don't feel too safe if you're talking to a celebrity. You could always send your phone number to his/her agent or a publicly confirmed maildrop for this celebrity.

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