An Analysis of Anonymity on the Internet.

Internet technologies bring with them a host of ramifications for the personal user, including a threat to personal privacy and anonymity. Anonymity and privacy are very closely integrated. Anonymity can be regarded as a way to protect one’s privacy. Third parties, providing Internet services, can record and collect user data in order to create user profiles. This is done in numerous ways, such as using cookies. The available anonymizing services have various deficiencies. The objective of this paper is to analyze current threats to anonymity, as well as popular countermeasures being used, with a view to providing an improved, systematic model integrated with operational controls to improve anonymity. 1.