Anonymous Communication and Its Importance in Social Networking

Abstract

Digital information has become a social infrastructure and with the expansion of the Internet, network infrastructure has become an indispensable part of social life and industrial activity for mankind. For various reasons, however, today’s networks are vulnerable to numerous risks, such as information leakage, privacy infringement and data corruption. Through this research, the authors tried to establish an in-depth understanding of the importance of anonymous communication in social networking which is mostly used by ordinary and non-technical people. It demonstrates how the commonly used non-anonymous communication scheme in social networking can turn the Internet into a very dangerous platform because of its built-in nature making its users’ identity easily traceable. After providing some introductory information on Internet protocol (IP), internal working mechanism of social networking and concept of anonymity on the Internet, Facebook is used as a case study in demonstrating how various network tracing tools and gimmicks could be used to reveal identity of its users and victimize many innocent people. It then demonstrates working mechanism of various tools that can turn the Facebook social networking site into a safe and anonymous platform. The paper concludes by summarizing pros and cons of various anonymous communication techniques and highlighting its importance for social networking platforms.