Protecting your Privacy in Usenet Support Groups
| Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. http://mentalhealth.about.com |
In an earlier feature I discussed the uses of Usenet Newsgroups as online support groups. Usenet Newsgroups are public bulletin boards where your message will be posted all over the world. Groups such as alt.support.depression were once cozy little corners of the Internet visited only by group members seeking support and a few therapists who offered help. This is no longer the case. Archives of these groups are now kept on Web services like Deja News, and bulk email software can scour newsgroups to pull out your email address.
I recently posted an announcement to Usenet letting people know about a feature article at The Mining Company. I made the mistake of including my true email address. My mailbox filled up with unwanted junk email within a few days. (To learn more about this "spam" problem and some legislative attempts to solve it visit the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email.)
What can you do?
At one time it was relatively easy to post anonymously to newsgroups. You could simply email your post to an address in Finland with instructions regarding which group to post to. The "remailer" in Finland would strip all of the identifying information and send your post anonymously to the newsgroup. It would include an identifying number, which would allow people to reply anonymously to you. Usenet support groups used this service liberally, since it was convenient and private. It seems that the service was also used by former members of the Russian KGB and other criminal elements. A court forced the owner to reveal the identity of one user, and before too long the service shut down. You will still see references to "anon.penet.fi" in usenet literature, but the service no longer exists.
So what can you do now?
There is a pseudo-anonymous remailer which works in a similar manner to anon.penet.fi. It offers anonymity, but not privacy. The person who runs the service has reportedly sometimes read the mail. To get information, send a blank email message to help@anon.twwells.com. Full information about the service is also available.
Almost anything else you do is controversial. The easiest thing to do is to change the settings on your newsreader software so that your true email address is not listed. Do not use anyone else's address, though. Making this change means that you can't get private replies to messages, but it will save you possible embarrassment and junk mail. Depending in your ISP's settings, your email address may be discoverable anyway (but it would take some effort). If you do want to include your email address in the body of the message, disguise it with extra characters. If your address is mentalhealth.guide@about.com change it to "zzmentalhealth.guidezz@zzabout.com" and ask people to remove the "zz"s.
Some Software exists which allows you to post to these newsgroups anonymously, but it is not as simple as the extinct Finnish solution. You need to use a combination of an anonymous remailer (software which sends email anonymously) and a mail-to-news service. This allows you to post to a newsgroup without revealing your true name and email address. People can't reply personally, though; but they can reply in a manner which posts to the entire group. This is a more common way to reply in newsgroups anyway.
This procedure is complex, and it will be outlined in Part two....
Continue to Part 2 ->
| Leonard Holmes, Ph.D. http://mentalhealth.about.com |
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