In light of the recent privacy debacle involving the Plain Dealer and Judge Saffold (see previous post), a number of news media outlets are reconsidering their policies relating to the anonymity of those who comment online about news stories. I am indebted to my colleague Elizabeth Rowe for bringing this new article to my attention from The Gainesville Sun. The article surveys the approaches taken by different news services to the anonymity of postings by online commenters. Some very interesting points are made in the article. One is the issue raised by the editor of the Plain Dealer, Susan Goldberg, who has suggested that anonymity should be regarded as a habit in this context, rather than a guarantee. Another interesting aspect of the article is that it notes that a number of news services are considering revised approaches to their online commenting policies along the lines of either doing away with anonymity altogether and requiring people to post comments under their own names, or instituting a ratings system for commenters so readers could give more or less weight to certain comments. This is a difficult issue indeed and I suspect we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg with respect to the privacy conundrums likely to be generated on these websites.
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