I’ve had a couple of interesting conversations about communication and information management and overload today. I’ve also read a few interesting posts on the subject of anonymity, starting with Eric Norlin’s post about Esther Dyson’s post on anonymity.

What I found interesting in the confluence of these ideas - anonymity and information overload, is that while

“The internet inexorably drags all information it touches into the public domain over time. The rate at which it drags that information is directly correlated to the amount of contact it has with that information.” (Norlin’sMaxim)

and

“In fact, we expect to see some people create decoy identities to throw surveillors off the scent, fighting too much information with disinformation and fake “kompromat” (compromising materials).”

it was Eric’s comment at the end that gave me pause for thought.

“My simple proof (back in 2002) was Google — google your name today and google your name 30 days from now. More information about it exists online 30 days from now.”

This is all well and good, but Google, for all it’s globalness, is still primarily an American search engine, with the vast majority of results stacked with American-centric results (which may or may not be a result of the majority of English web pages being based in the US). Which means when I Google my own name, you don’t actually get anything about me. Instead, you get my namesake. If you limit the search to UK pages only, while the first result is about me, it’s not about me. A link to a site I actually own, that contains my name, is at number 20. The rest, well… Stephen King’s books are far more popular than me.

So, what’s the point of this? Well, Esther talks about a loss of anonymity, while Eric talks about noting the changes when you Google your own name. Well, the way things are going, my answer to What won’t we have in 2035? would have to be my own public identity. The more information that is dragged into the public domain, the more dilution there will be of actual information, especially about anyone who shares a name with a famous or public figure.

Perhaps the art to being anonymous is to hide in plain site?