Internet and Identity: How Online Anonymity Is Disappearing

As platforms begin to track more data and transparency becomes mandatory, the era of online anonymity is fading and with it comes a cost.

Written by Alexander Giampietro

If you asked anybody 10 years ago what the social media landscape looked like, you would get an expected answer of platforms like Snapchat and Instagram being a new way to interact with friends online. Facebook for catching up with family, YouTube for watching content of interest and maybe Discord or Reddit for more specific discussions with peers. While these definitions have not changed for these platforms, the online environment over the years has certainly changed. With politics becoming more polarized, societal expectations rapidly changing and tech companies trying to maximize profits, the social media landscape has become a means for people to become products. The statement, “If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer, you’re the product being sold,” attributed to Andrew Lewis from The Social Dilemma, is what I’m referring to.

This has been a well-known fact for years, that many social media platforms we utilize every day use our data to give us recommendations and the ads we see, as well as new content and new ideas that may be of interest. This encouraged users to continue using the platform and to incentivize the habit of doomscrolling, a behavior many described as phone addiction and is the main driving factor for many social media platforms and how they still try to maximize this kind of behavior.

However, many social media platforms today are implementing systems like AI companions as well as allowing information to be more publicly visible. While this can still incentivize high rates of screentime, some recent news has proved that the purpose for systems such as AI and more public information to share goes beyond the purpose of what people see and already know.

For example, GenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, began sending all user prompts, responses and interactions to a server that collects all of this data automatically. They did this to help the chat bot have better tailored responses for the users purpose, but what was not mentioned was that a users device name and location were also on the board for GenAI to collect.

This does not stop with ChatGPT though, as systems like this are implemented on every single social platform in some way shape or form. 

In recent years, platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram have implemented systems so that a user's location can be tracked continuously, and platforms like Roblox and Discord are implementing full identification tracking into their frameworks. Twitter/X is ensuring full transparency on user profiles in the name of content moderation. Online privacy is slowly becoming a thing of the past due to the rise of systems like the ones listed, and soon, we could see a full shift to a version of the internet where anonymity is absent. 

This might not be a concern for some users if the current state of global affairs wasn’t so politically heated. Shortly after these policies were introduced on their respective platforms, according to the New York Times, the Department of Homeland Security started inquiring user data from these platforms for gathering data on opponents of the Republican party's current policy. 

More specifically, the former Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, has been more vocal about the rhetoric being said about ICE agents conducting operations in the U.S. Many experts have questioned the power someone like Noem has with infringing on what is a First Amendment right to all U.S. citizens. A situation like this – where a person of power has their influence carried into public forums – could result in the targeting of individuals who may not agree with the DHS’s current line of decisions regarding ICE activity. But, as it stands right now, Noem has only inquired about the user data of which there appears to be no deal being struck with the companies. 

Compounded with the already invasive practices many social media platforms are now making a staple in their systems and spaces, what we’re seeing is the death of anonymous interaction online and an environment that is now more heavily surveilled than ever before. Many major tech companies and governments now hold much of the power online, and it is important to recognize this fact to keep oneself and others safe, online and in real life. 

In another 10 years, the state of the internet, social media, and the internet as a platform could look more regulated, and the actions we’re seeing today may pave the way for the continued decline of anonymity and safety online.