Editing Pseudonymous remailer (section)

{{Short description|Internet software to protect user identities}}
{{mdy|date=April 2023}}
A '''pseudonymous remailer''' or '''nym server''', as opposed to an [[anonymous remailer]], is an [[Internet]] software program designed to allow people to write [[pseudonym]]ous messages on [[Usenet]] newsgroups and send pseudonymous [[email]].  Unlike purely anonymous remailers, it assigns its users a user name, and it keeps a database of instructions on how to return messages to the real user.   These instructions usually involve the anonymous remailer network itself, thus protecting the true identity of the user.

Primordial pseudonymous remailers once recorded enough information to trace the identity of the real user, making it possible for someone to obtain the identity of the real user through legal or illegal means. This form of pseudonymous remailer is no longer common.

[[David Chaum]] wrote an article in 1981 that described many of the features present in  modern pseudonymous remailers.<ref>{{cite journal | first = David | last = Chaum | title = Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses, and Digital Pseudonyms | journal =  Communications of the ACM | issue = 2 | date = February 1981 | url = http://freehaven.net/anonbib/cache/chaum-mix.pdf  | volume = 24 | pages = 84–90 | doi = 10.1145/358549.358563 | s2cid = 30340230 }}</ref>

The [[Penet remailer]], which lasted from 1993 to 1996, was a popular pseudonymous remailer.