Why everyone should mask their Identity on Blogger (If not everywhere else as well))

In the name of truly free speech and a free and interesting internet that hopefully never comes to bite me at my place of employment or elsewhere, I try to remain about as anonymous as necessary for the application at hand. 

To that end, for those of you who have not become quite as paranoid as I have yet, I would like to point out a few reasons to use a proxy/ VPN and use an alias if your blog contains or may contain anything more than mindless drivel and everyday ho-hum.

1) Go0--gle User data Requests: Notice that the percentage of data requests fully or partially complied with is 93% in the United States, which is the highest percentage on the list as of this post. That tells me that any privacy you do not create for yourself is most certainly not afforded to you nor even considered if you live in the US.

2) Go0---glee Search logs: So you say to yourself: Well, what information could they really hand out anyway. Well, you may want to know that unlike many search engines that save previous searches via cookies on  your computer, where you can delete them at will, the good old people at the Goog store the time, date, IP address and search data on their computers where they can recall the information with precise detail for up to 9 months, and in less detail after that (Until they change their TOS). 

How creepy is that? And that's when they aren't cruising down the street taking pictures of your house and neighborhood.

The information is tied to your email or blogger account, so any searching you do while logged in is both tied to you and compiled in the database. Don't worry, if there was a request for data about your internet life, there is only a 93% chance Goog will hand over the information. With stats like that, one can almost be certain the requests are not all tied to warrants like they should be.

3)  If you aren't anonymous, surprise, YOU AREN'T ANONYMOUS! You would be shocked at how many people use similar monikers for their everyday lives as they do for their "secretly complaining about their husband account" or whatever. Just about anyone with enough time on their hands can put the pieces together and read all you dirty little secrets. I know I read them! 

Protect yourself, your friends, and you public image. What passes for free speech today may have you placed in a giant electronic file folder tomorrow.