How to Blog Anonymously so you don’t get fired

Posted on April 12, 2007 at 10:21 pm

Lots of people with blogs want to have lots and lots of visitors (like me), but can’t seem to get enough! Others, however, get visitors that they wish they never did! A blog is a great way to write about your favorite bands or your children and those sorts of things….but it’s also a great way to bash your crappy job or make fun of your last girlfriend too! And that’s where the one or two readers who might actually read your blog will get you screwed!

And especially if you do stupid things like put your name on your blog, etc, you’ll surely be found by someone if they do a simple search for your name on Google. Maybe not if you’re name is John Smith, but hella sure if your name is Aseem Kishore (me! My blog shows up #3 on Google when you search my name and I show up about 10 more times on the next 4 to 5 pages in various blog directories)! So basically, if you put your name anywhere in your blog (profile, comments, etc), you can eventually be found.

And there are many cases recently of people posting comments against their bosses and getting fired for it! Or someone hiring you might decide to do a quick search on your name just to make sure you don’t show up linked to pornlovers.com or some other not-so-good place. You can take certain steps to make sure you protect your identity if you want to express ALL your thoughts without any consequences.

1. Use a Pseudonym and Don’t Give Away Any Identifying Details – This means your real name (obviously), pictures of yourself (obviously), birthdays, work locations, places you go to in your city (bars, restuarants, clubs, etc), and blogging while you are at work! The last one is important because you company may monitor network traffic and the web addresses can easily be read.

2. Use Tools to Anonymize your computer - When you go to a web site, your IP address can usually be determined by the site you are connecting to. Or if you have a blog on some big name sites, they might ask you to give your real name. You can use a program called Tor to make sure no one can see your real IP address. It basically routes you through many servers so that you cannot be tracked.

You can also use a product from Anonymizer.com which again does the same thing to hide your IP address.

3. Limit Your Audience – If you’re blogging for friends and family, then you don’t need everyone in the world reading it, so set passwords if you can to restrict access to your blog posts. Some blog sites allow you to designate “friends” who are the only trusted people to view your blog.

4. Google will find you – Google’s search bot finds just about everything on the internet even if you have a web site with just one page and a little text! In order to stop Google from indexing your pages, you have to create a file called robots.txt. You can use the “Robots Text File Generator” tool for free at Web Tool Central to help you do this.

These are some of the ways to help make your blog or web site more anonymous on the internet and if I find any other ways, I’ll add them.

Source: http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/blog-anonymously.php

[tags]blog anonymously, anonymous blog, hide your identity[/tags]

» Filed Under IT In Life

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Comments

5 Responses to “How to Blog Anonymously so you don’t get fired”

  1. Lindystar said on : April 13th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    Where did my comment go?


  2. Lindystar said on : April 13th, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    Sorry, my first one went…..somewhere? Who knows,

    Anyways I just wanted to say a GIGANTIC Thank-You for this kick ass site. I just freed up a bunch of space on my computer by following your tips.

    Screw Computers for dummies, you put this stuff up in a way that makes sense to us simple folk.

    And my Computer says Gracias because she feels less bloated now. I’ve given her way too many beans and no way to fart. Shame Shame Shame.

    Anyways, thanx and have a good one!!!


  3. AK said on : April 13th, 2007 at 3:43 pm

    Thanks very much for the comments! I’m glad it’s helpful to someone!!!! :)


  4. David Bradley said on : October 29th, 2007 at 9:15 am

    Interesting. Even as someone who is self employed it’s probably worth taking your advice – here’s a piece on when blogging gets you fired that might be of interest

    db


  5. Harry said on : December 12th, 2009 at 10:29 am

    Thanks for the great share! Really good info. It’s important for me to keep my identity a secret online.


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