From: Alan Barrett <barrett@daisy.ee.und.ac.za>
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 93 07:48:25 PDT
To: Scott Collins <catalyst@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Warning about exposing anon id
In-Reply-To: <9310222055.AA23514@newton.apple.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.03.9310231644.B3609-a100000@daisy.ee.und.ac.za>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Scott Collins says:
> Wonderer says:
>   >[direct replies to an anon id reveal _your_ anon id]
> 
> To avoid this, instead of replying to e.g., an41418@anon.penet.fi, reverse
> the first two letters (mnemonic 'not anonymous') and thus reply instead to
> na41418@anon.penet.fi.

I believe that, according to the principle of least astonishment, replies
to anonymous IDs should, by default, not be double-blinded; and deliberate
action should have to be taken to request the double-blinding that
currently happens by default.  Perhaps the anon admins could be persuaded
to modify their systems accordingly;  They would just need to put na####
instead of an#### in the FROM address, and educate their users. 

Several months ago, I tried to persuade one of the anon admins to do this,
but I was not successful, and that server has since shut down. 

--apb
Alan Barrett, Dept. of Electronic Eng., Univ. of Natal, Durban, South Africa
RFC822: barrett@ee.und.ac.za