Anonymity is hard to come by in real life. If you walk into a building, people will see you. You could wear a mask, but what if someone recognizes something else? The way you walk, your voice, the perfume you wear, your clothes, the list goes on and on. There’s always something leading back to you. If you want anonymity, you need to go somewhere else. Solve the issue of being in a place by not being in a place.

The Internet.

On the internet, you are nobody. Unless you choose to reveal yourself, you are just another voice among millions. This is what anonymity is, and I love it. Nothing you are as a person matters on the internet because you create your own being. Your words can make you seem older, wiser, or younger, more “hip”. But is this really anonymity?

…

No, of course not.

Saying anything otherwise would be a lie, just like anonymity on the internet.

There’s always something leading back to you.

Your IP address marks who you are at all times. If you think changing it helps, you’re still under the watchful eye of an internet provider. Using a VPN still leaves a trail from you to the VPN provider to the ISP. There’s no such thing as “no logging” on the internet, even if it says so on their ToS. By law they’re required to track your connections.

Let’s look past that though.

If you have none of those issues, your personality will still mark you down. The way you type. The words you pick. The things you’re inevitably giving away. Even if you lie, you’ll either contradict yourself or you’ll create lies based on your truth. You’ll still be found.

Anonymity is rarer than you’d think.

There’s always something leading back to you.