From: stewarts@ix.netcom.com
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 04:51:46 +0800
To: Nerthus <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: How anonymous?
In-Reply-To: <199711181526.QAA07169@basement.replay.com>
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19971118100119.006d70e8@popd.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 04:26 PM 11/18/1997 +0100, Nerthus wrote:
>Having the writings of a nym "edited" by others as a way of foiling 
>Stylometry -- the statistical analysis of literary style -- may prove to be 
>a lucrative business if nyms ever gain wide use, especially if they are used 
>in ecommerce where anonymity of the nym holder is paramount to avoid the 
>wrath of the tax man in his physical jurisdiction.

As computer programs for analyzing and generating natural language improve,
there's a lot that can be automated, though stylometry does give away which
rewriters you commonly use, the way typewriter differences used to generate clues.
There are crude examples today, like Jive and Valspeak,
and you probably wouldn't want to use a Zippyfier on your ecommerce
	Yow!  Here's $50 for that polysorbate-80!   The Net is a blur of
	Republicans and 0xdeadbeef!  Deposit to account 1028804154422215!
	I'm eating 33 bushels of soybean futures! Yow!
Also, I'm sure there will be freelance writing coaches out there on the net,
who make a business of editing, and who'll be happy to take your
grody Valley-Accent writing and help you write proper formal business jargon,
and if you're giving them the already robo-rewritten text, that's pretty secure.

Also, formal grammars, such as EDI, often constrain the expressiveness of 
commercial communications, reducing the need for obfuscation.




				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com
Regular Key PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639