Internet privacy does not go through one of its best moments. To all the information that we ourselves provide (consciously and unconsciously) with our mobiles and social networks, and that compile the large technology companies for commercial purposes, we add the political will to end the anonymity in them and the persecutions with character ideological to unmask the real identity of people with opposing political ideas, as has recently happened with the Twitter user @JosPastr.
One of the advantages and rights that Internet users have is the possibility of maintaining their anonymity to express themselves freely. Due to labor reasons and / or social pressure, many people avoid spreading their opinions and criticisms in social networks, falling into self-censorship. In order to avoid it, we offer you this small guide that will allow you to use Twitter in (almost) anonymous way.
1. Avoid duplicating content.
The content of your anonymous account must be exclusive of it and (in no case) you must use the same images or expressions in your real account, or Twitter or any other social network. For example, if from your anonymous account you have uploaded an image of your guitar, do not upload that image, or any other similar, in any social network (or internet) that you use with your real identity.
2. Avoid photographing your home or place of work.
This will only help to give clues about your possible identity and the objective of managing an anonymous account is precisely to prevent it from being known.
3. Manage your anonymous accounts from a terminal other than your real accounts.
If you are going to use twitter from a mobile phone, always do it from a different terminal to your real account to avoid ending up tweeting with the wrong account. It is a truism advice but that many professional community managers do not apply and have been on the verge of losing their job for giving their personal opinion from a corporate account in an erroneous way. A clear example of this happened with the official Twitter account of the Madrid City Council when it published: "You have to have the CO GRONES MU to talk about #Colocaos being the PP or Cs or the PSOE ..: [SIC]". Also, if possible, that this terminal should also not be associated with your Android account.
4. If you manage it from a computer, always do it in incognito mode.
If you use your Twitter (or Facebook) account from a computer, always do it in incognito mode. Either yours or a third person you trust. This will prevent your session from being registered in the browser.
5. Never do it from a work computer or hooked up to your Wifi.
Never use your anonymous account from a computer at work, or in incognito mode since, with in-depth scrutiny, computer technicians can discover you. A very clear example to understand this is an anecdote about the colleges of the faculties. In some of them, the students of computer science are dedicated to trastear in the servants to cotillear the erotic videos that other residents have been unloaded.
6. Deactivate your location on Twitter How many less tracks do much better. Avoid, in general, any clue that can provide a clue about your identity to your environment or your potential detractors.
7. Associate your accounts only to an email that you have created ad hoc for this purpose.
There are many free services that allow you to create a secure email. One of the best known worldwide is Protonmail in which you can create an account in less than a minute. Keep in mind that all these tips we have provided are intended for people living in democratic regimes in which the safeguarding of their identity aims to maintain their privacy in the face of their work and social circles and not as a parapet behind which to threaten other users or committing outrages.
What happens in non-democratic countries?
In the case of undemocratic regimes and countries that have limited freedom of expression, these councils would be insufficient. Nor would it be enough for some established democracies like Sweden, where there are television programs and press articles in which they are dedicated to hunting and capturing anonymous users to expose their identity publicly.
A user who wishes to express themselves freely in social networks anonymously in a state of these characteristics should take a series of additional precautions. It also requires strict discipline when applying them and must be clear that any failure can have dire consequences for him. Therefore, except in the case of individuals specially trained to maintain their hidden identity, it is discouraged to try to carry out these practices in countries of these characteristics. Such precautions would include the use of tools such as TOR, a VPN, that the terminal used that is impossible to associate the user and avoid downloading applications that are not secure, among others.
