Editing Anonymity (section)

{{About|identification|other uses|Anonymous (disambiguation){{!}}Anonymous}}
{{short description|Situation in which a person is non-identifiable, unreachable, or untrackable}}
[[File:Anonymous Scientology 9 by David Shankbone.JPG|thumb|Protesters outside a [[Scientology]] center on February 10, 2008, donning masks, scarves, hoods, and sunglasses to obscure their faces, and gloves and long sleeves to protect them from leaving [[fingerprint]]s.]]
'''Anonymity'''{{efn|[[Adjective]]: "anonymous". Derived from the [[Koine Greek|Greek]] word ἀνωνυμία, ''[[alpha privative|an-]]onymia'', meaning "without a [[name]]" or "namelessness"}} describes situations where the acting person's identity is unknown. Anonymity may be created unintentionally through the loss of identifying information due to the passage of time or a destructive event, or intentionally if a person chooses to withhold their identity.

There are various situations in which a person might choose to remain anonymous. Acts of [[Charity (virtue)|charity]] have been performed anonymously when benefactors do not wish to be acknowledged. A person who feels threatened might attempt to mitigate that threat through anonymity. A witness to a crime might seek to avoid retribution, for example, by anonymously calling a crime tipline. In many other situations (like conversation between strangers, or buying some product or service in a shop), anonymity is traditionally accepted as natural.

Some writers have argued that the term "namelessness", though technically correct, does not capture what is more centrally at stake in contexts of anonymity. The important idea here is that a person be [[non-identifiable]], unreachable, or untrackable.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Wallace | first1 = Kathleen A | year = 1999 | title = Anonymity | journal = Ethics and Information Technology | volume = 1 | pages = 23–35 | doi = 10.1023/A:1010066509278 | s2cid = 249867120 }}; {{cite journal | last1 = Nissenbaum | first1 = Helen | year = 1999 | title = The Meaning of Anonymity in an Information Age | journal = The Information Society | volume = 15 | issue = 2| pages = 141–44 | doi = 10.1080/019722499128592 | s2cid = 19684983 }}; {{cite journal | last1 = Matthews | first1 = Steve | year = 2010 | title = Anonymity and the Social Self | journal = American Philosophical Quarterly | volume = 47 | pages = 351–63 }}</ref> Anonymity is also seen as a way to realize certain other values, such as [[privacy]] or liberty. An important example of anonymity being not only protected, but enforced, by law is in voting in [[free election]]s.

Criminals might proceed anonymously to conceal their participation in a crime. In certain situations, however, it may be illegal to remain anonymous. For example, [[Stop and identify statutes|24 of the U.S. states have "stop and identify" statutes]] that require persons detained to self-identify when requested by a law enforcement officer, when the person is reasonably suspected of committing a crime. Over the past few years, anonymity tools used on the [[dark web]] by criminals and malicious users have drastically altered the ability of law enforcement to use conventional surveillance techniques.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ghappour|first=Ahmed|date=2017-09-01|title=Data Collection and the Regulatory State|url=https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/255|journal=Connecticut Law Review|volume=49|issue=5|pages=1733}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ghappour|first=Ahmed|date=2017-01-01|title=Tallinn, Hacking, and Customary International Law|url=https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/206|journal=AJIL Unbound|volume=111|pages=224–228|doi=10.1017/aju.2017.59|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The term "anonymous message" typically refers to a message that does not reveal its sender. In many countries, anonymous letters are protected by law and must be delivered as regular letters.

In [[mathematics]], in reference to an arbitrary element (e.g., a human, an object, a [[computer]]), within a well-defined [[Set (mathematics)|set]] (called the "anonymity set"), "anonymity" of that element refers to the property of that element of not being identifiable within this set. If it is not identifiable, then the element is said to be "anonymous".