Facebook Explores Anonymity Features

Facebook spent years defining what it means to have an online identity. Now with the surge in popularity of anonymous social apps, Facebook may be spending next few figuring out how to deal with the complete opposite case. That’s why Secret, one of the latest buzzy social apps to come out of the Valley, could be Facebook’s ticket into the anonymity sphere -- or at least help the social giant think through its plans to crack the opposite end of the identity spectrum.

Facebook has already played around with ways of logging in to Facebook apps anonymously, which would be a big departure from the always-logged-in experience that visiting the Facebook.com site and mobile apps has been traditionally. This comes at a time when anonymous messaging services have grown more popular. Rumors of a $100 million offer from Facebook to buy Secret that reverberated through Silicon Valley were shot down by two people familiar with the social networking giant’s plans. But it’s difficult to see how Facebook -- a company that has spent a decade building the exact opposite type of anonymous platforms -- can accomplish something like this.