PRINCIPLE 5- Avoid High Risk Places and Public Transportation
Thankfully, being anonymous does not require you to become agoraphobic. Who can enjoy life while cowering behind the locked doors of their bat-cave? Nowadays however, public activities are often conducted under the watchful gaze of street cameras, microphones, drones, and surveillance satellites. But there are common-sense ways to minimize your "face time."
Being private in public also involves effective deterrence of criminal threats. Pulling a gun and blowing away some deserving scumbag is an extremely satisfying, but poor choice for a privacy-minded person. Even if completely in the right, you’ll be extensively questioned and possibly detained. Your heretofore anonymous existence will quickly be flushed right out into the open. Fortunately, there's a variety of high-tech, non-lethal self-defense methods allowing you to effectively repel any threat, without the police becoming involved.
PRINCIPAL 6- Avoid High-Risk Relationships and Ticking Off the Neighbors
Big government and the NSA are indisputably intrusive. But a nosy neighbor, bad domestic partner, or the benign-appearing psychopath you brought home last night can do far more harm. If you're seeking a quiet, hassle-free life, then steer clear of the drama-addicted, since these individuals have a hair-trigger propensity to come into contact with law enforcement and other government entities. Enter their orbit, and there’s an excellent chance of your being dragged into their legal messes.
Usually, we don't get to choose our neighbors in the same way we do our friends. Here, privacy seekers often go wrong by assuming that their own "live and let live" attitude is reciprocal or universal. If you have ten neighbors living in close proximity, at least one of them-- probably two-- will be inordinately concerned with the coming and goings of everybody else. The hyper-vigilant are completely and obsessively plugged-in concerning who lives where, what they drive, where they work, and what the internet has to say about them.
The best way to combat this? Don't have neighbors. Get your own 10 acres, fence it in, and be done with it. But for many of us, this is either impractical or in conflict with our social needs. Thus, the key to minimizing the interest of the neighborhood snoop is to keep a low profile. In a typical residential setting, noise often gets you in trouble, so refrain from loud parties, music, or cars. Second to auditory annoyances are the visual ones. Be normal. Keep your lawn trimmed and free of adornments such as non-roadworthy cars perched up on blocks. Do not paint your house Moby Grape. That sort of thing...
PRINCIPLE 7- Unhitch Yourself From Your "Name"
A challenging concept. After all, you've had your name since birth, so there is much psychological investment in those two or three groupings of letters. Your name might evoke a sense of family pride, history or tradition, but can also be hazardous to your privacy. Similar to the inadvisability of using the same password for all computers and websites, identifying yourself by the same moniker to everybody in all situations is equally unwise.
Unless a person is actively being sought by the police, he can, by carefully weaving his "real name" with a series of pseudo-identities, seamlessly conduct his day-to-day life and create sufficient confusion and misdirection to achieve his anonymity goals.
Here are some identity terms we touched on earlier, and will be using often:
"ACTUAL YOU"- The living, breathing flesh-and-blood entity currently reading this post-- regardless of whatever "name" your currently using.
"PERSON OF RECORD"- This is "you", as known by your "real name." It was probably the name you were given at birth, the one by which you are known to officialdom, such as the DMV and your state's Bureau of Vital Statistics.
"VIRTUAL SELF"- A made-up name underwhich you might be living or working under, or by which you socially introduce yourself. Since made-up monikers are free for the taking, why limit yourself to just one?
“ENHANCED ANONYMITY”- The overall goal, as opposed to a complete and total disappearance. Pursuit of a truly anonymous lifestyle generally leads to a fearful, cowering person. Evasiveness and sneakiness raises eyebrows and invites inquiries that normally wouldn’t be if a given human had a couple of blips on the radar screen. But these blips should convey minimal, misdirecting information. Enhanced anonymity allows you to safely evaporate from the informational grid while leaving behind a few insignificant breadcrumbs. This way, family, friends, and the government will be satisfied that yes... you're still alive and still out there-- somewhere.
