Steal This Computer Book 4.0, 4th Edition

Chapter 14. Finding People on the Internet

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You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

— ERIC HOFFER

In real life, people have reasons to be polite. You can’t shove other people out of the way to get to the front of a line or tell your boss what you really think of him because you’ll have to face the consequences of your actions. On the Internet, nobody knows who you are or even where you are unless you tell them. (Or unless they track down your IP address and trace your name and street address through your ISP.)

There’s a sense of distance and anonymity that frees people to drop any social pretense and act upon whatever impulse seizes them. That’s what makes the Internet so dangerous. Without ...