From: an41418@anon.penet.fi (wonderer)
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 13:32:57 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Warning about exposing anon id
Message-ID: <9310222029.AA28647@anon.penet.fi>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I am a strong believer in the importance of being
able to have an anonymous identity with a reputation.
As such, let me post a warning about the most common
way people are revealing their identities to me.

If you see a post to cypherpunks from an anonymous
user of the Finish remailer. That is, an####@anon.penet.fi,
and you reply to cypherpunks and to that person, then
the article that appears on cypherpunks will have your
real name and e-mail address, but the message received by
the original poster will be from your anonymous id.
It's easy to put the two together and establish a list
of who is who. Personally, I am ignoring it when this happens,
but if I wanted to, I could have a list of about 15 of
you by now.

It's important to understand how an anonymous service
works if you want to rely on it. Also realize, that even
if you don't think you are using the service, it is
allocating an id for you when you reply to an anonymous
poster. You will receive a message about this auomatically
from the remailer.

Wonderer
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To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi.
Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized,
and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned.
Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.