Blogging Anonymously? Five Tips To Stay That Way

Inc.com has reported that a 37-year-old St. Louis blogger, who goes by the handle “The Beautiful Kind,” has been fired by her non-profit employer due to the erotic nature of her anonymous blog. The surprised employer, who was instructed by her corporate office to Google her employees, was able to find the blogger’s true identity “in two seconds” because of a third party social media platform, Topsy, that published the blogger’s real name alongside her Twitter handle.

While the ethics of this decision, along with the decisions of other employers to terminate other anonymous bloggers, can be debated back and forth, the issue of concern is the ability for bloggers to be outed despite taking many precautionary steps to protect their identities online.

How can bloggers who choose to be anonymous remain so? Here are some tips to ensuring that you can keep your online persona separate from your real-life identity:

1. Track yourself online. It’s no secret that employers, potential dates, and other real-life contacts turn to Google and social media to learn more about you, so the best way to manage what information they will find is to be on top of it yourself. Dedicate 30 minutes or so to searching for both your online persona and real name, and set Google alerts to help you track online references to you.

2. If you want to be anonymous, take steps to keep yourself anonymous. In the St. Louis case, the blogger was outed because she used her real name to create her anonymous Twitter profile. With so many free email services, it’s easy to create an account in your blog’s name, or to use a pen name. Avoid using your personal, identifiable email address or personal information for anonymous blogging activities.

3. Don’t give away any identifying details. If you’re taking the steps to ensure that your name isn’t attached to your blog, be sure not to accidentally give away your identity by revealing too many details about your life. If, for example, you are writing about work, and you note that you work as a news reporter for a daily newspaper in Philadelphia, it’s apparent that you work for one of two papers, and in what department. A little reading may give away your desk location, or make it obvious what fellow writer you feel has BO or an annoying habit that irks you to no end. Not to mention, tech-savvy employers who are tracking their own online presence are searching for and setting alerts for “Philadelphia newspaper,” so the chances of getting busted go up with details like this. Instead, if work and career is important to the content of your blog, identify yourself as a news reporter in a top city.

4. Be careful about domain names. Even if you’ve taken all the steps to register your blog anonymously and eliminate personal clues from your content, something as simple as a WHOIS domain search can reveal your true identity.

5. Don’t make yourself a target. Blogging anonymously can be liberating – you can write about things that you wouldn’t feel comfortable disclosing with your real name, and you can speak freely about political or controversial topics without fear of judgement or retribution. But, with that power there have also been many cases of defamation and libel. While blog hosting sites have been granted federal immunity from prosecution for posting libel, bloggers themselves are not granted protection, and information about how to identify and prosecute anonymous bloggers is readily available online. Speak freely and openly, but be careful about defaming specific individuals, or you may wind up in the hot seat. Laws vary from state to state, but most cover whistleblowers, political conversation, and other protected forms of speech. However, libel is not protected in any published medium, so think carefully before you post, and be sure you have your facts straight!