Anonymity, Privacy, and Trust

Abstract

In the Internet realm these days, we see the terms anonymity, privacy,and trustused as if they meant the same thing. We see “trust marks” attempting to describe the privacy policy of a Web site (e.g., Truste™ and WebTrust™). And we see “privacy” described in terms of personally identifiable information (PII) leaving the control of the person whose PII it is. We've also learned that accessing a site without revealing some information useful in tracking back to us is difficult and is never the default situation.