Think anonymity is an issue of little interest to you because you have nothing to hide? Think again. Almost anyone, given a little thought, can imagine a scenario where absolute anonymity would be necessary to avoid harm.
Think about ethnic Albanians being rooted out of Kosovo. Anonymity helps victims of ethnic cleansing and associated atrocities document their plight with some measure of safety.
Think about an abusive working environment or relationship and being able to register a complaint, anonymously, with the appropriate agency.
Even the Justice Department, no friend of secure communications of any kind, recognizes the inherent value of anonymity: “Anonymity has incontestable value in a huge number of situations, and it is constitutionally protected,” Philip Reitinger, a Justice Department prosecutor, told attendees of the mid-April 1999 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in Washington, DC. Maybe it was a mistake because Reitinger told the next session that “if you’re serious about prosecuting crime on the global communications infrastructure, you have to have traceability.”
