If a history of Internet anonymity is ever written, a key figure will be Finland's Johan "Julf" Helsingius and his computer, known as anon.penet .fi. And February 8, 1995, will be remembered as the day that Internet anonymity first came in conflict with the law - and lost. Anon.penet.fi acts as a remailer so Internet users can send messages anonymously. But on February 8, Finnish police served Helsingius a warrant demanding the address of a user who had anonymously distributed documents allegedly owned by the Church of Scientology.
The ease with which the church obtained the real name of an anonymous user shocked many on the Net. According to Helsingius, hundreds of users have since asked him to remove their names from the anon.penet.fi database. But he points out that while it's necessary for his server to maintain a database of addresses so that replies to anonymous posts can be forwarded to the correct person, "a technically skilled person can register with a false name."
ELECTRIC WORD
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Even Look at This Poster
Anonymity: 0. Scientology: 1.
