Blogging Anonymously

We know that Blogger allows us to blog anonymously, by promising to never reveal our identity as a blog owner.

This policy leads to mysterious scenarios, like when someone forgets the account that they used to create a blog, that they do own. And, it leads sometimes to tragic scenarios, like bloggers who don't have access to the back door email account, and can't prove blog ownership.

Even though Blogger allows us to pursue our anonymity, though, that doesn't guarantee absolute anonymity without effort.

There are things that we still need to do, to ensure that our name / identity isn't connected with a given blog.

• Setup a new Blogger account, with no personally identifying details.
• Start a new blog - published as private.
• Don't provide any visible biographical content.
• Watch how you follow other blogs.
• Use separate, multiple Blogger accounts.
• Be aware of the risks involved, when anonymising yourself.

Setup a new Blogger account, with no personally identifying details.

If you want true anonymity, make a new Blogger account, and put no personal details into the new account. "No personal details" includes no links to any existing Blogger accounts, or blogs - in either direction.

If you want to go through life with a second (or third, ...) account, please understand the risks. If you truly anonymise your new account, and blog, you will have no way to identify yourself as the owner, if you ever forget the account name, or password.

Start a new blog - published as private.

If your current blog(s) have been published for a while, you may think of making your blog(s) private.

• This change won't take effect, immediately
• Even after the blog becomes private, cached copies of the blog can be retrieved - and your personal details can be extracted from the cached copy.

The next possibility, then, would be to start a new blog - and publish your blog(s) as private.

With a blog published privately, we then disable indexing of the blog(s). This won't be 100% effective.

• Not all search engine spiders will respect the "NoIndex, NoFollow" directives.
• Not all bloggers want their blogs to be private, even if they don't want a personal and permanent connection with the blogs.
• Private blogs are not completely hidden from public view.
• RSS feeds may contain information which we do not select for appearance in the visual blog copy.

So, look at additional techniques - but be aware of techniques that will have no effect.

Don't provide any visible biographical content.

First, remove the "About Me" gadget from the blogs. Either publish blogs without a native Blogger "About Me" gadget, or make up a custom one.

Second, remove the blogs from the "My Blogs" list in your Blogger profile, or don't share your profile at all. And setup a second owner for your blog, so your Blogger profile number isn't visible, in the blog header.

Watch how you follow other blogs.

Third, and not the least of your concerns, is what blogs interest you? Be careful how you Follow blogs - both your own, and those published by other people.

Visibility of other blogs in your profile, as well as your visibility in various Following communities, may tell a lot about you.

Be aware of what profiles you use, as a Follower. For maximum anonymity, don't Follow at all - just subscribe to the blogs that interest you, using the newsfeed reader of your choice.

Use separate, multiple Blogger accounts.

If you're truly paranoid, you could transfer control of the blogs, to a secondary account that you own.

If you use a second account, it would be wise to use a non GMail account, so you can avoid a Google cookie clash caused by trying to use two Google accounts simultaneously. And please, if you want to retain control of your blogs, use a valid non GMail email address, and keep control of the email address.

And you can always Follow other blogs using a different identity.

Finally, check behind yourself, carefully. Comb the contents of your blogs, and make sure that you don't inadvertently reveal any personal details. This may be an ongoing concern, as you publish any blog, anonymously or not.

Protect yourself. These are things that you have to do, for yourself. But at the same time, remember that anonymity, when achieved, may have a price.

Be aware of the risks involved, when anonymising yourself.

Successful anonymity can mean problems identifying yourself - when you travel, or when you change computers, or especially when you forget your account name or password.

Consider setting up Google 2-Step Verification, if you want long term public anonymity - and want to continue publishing a blog.

(Update July 2001): To let us selectively share information about ourselves with some people (as we choose), Blogger / Google is giving us Google+, which lets us replace boring unshared static information with exciting selectively shared dynamic information.