Web anonymity battle starts anew

One of the Internet’s founding fathers is set this week to revive a heated cybersecurity debate over whether to preserve anonymity and the use of pseudonyms in online chat forums and social networks like Twitter. Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist, is expected to make the case for keeping people’s identity anonymous — particularly on certain Web services — when he delivers the keynote address at the RSA cybersecurity conference.

Tension over the issue has been building for years between free speech advocates and those who say tougher steps are needed to boost cybersecurity on the Internet. “The ability to speak anonymously [online] is critical to the ability to speak freely, to speak on the matters of public policy,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president of consumer interest group Public Knowledge and a former member of the U.S. delegation during the U.N. conference.