CIS has a detailed blog post explaining why all of us who care about freedom of expression on internet should support annulment motion by MP P. Rajeeve.

You should actually read that blog post but the following are the most important points

No chance to defend.
There is no need to inform users before this content is removed. So, even material put up by a political party can be removed based on anyone’s complaint, without telling that party. This was done against a site called *CartoonsAgainstCorruption.com”. This goes against Article 19(1)(a).

Government censorship, not ‘self-regulation’.
The government says these are industry best-practices in existing terms of service agreements. But the Rules require all intermediaries to include the government-prescribed terms in an agreement, no matter what services they provide. It is one thing for a company to choose the terms of its terms of service agreement, and completely another for the government to dictate those terms of service.

Video: why the IT Rules are a threat to your Internet as you know it

Government, police or an angry mob can force your blog (freedom of expression) or your business (web-based) to go offline without notice. Which is kind of insane isn’t it?

Thankfully there are some smart MPs in our parliament who are trying to pass a motion to annul these rules. We can’t just sit and watch. We need to support MPs who are supporting this motion. Call other MPs and ministers to urge them to support this motion.

To call your MP, ministers and to send them an email, use this online form provided by CIS. Its easy doesn’t take more than a minute. If you want to do more use the postal address to send hard-copies of the letter or use the given official phone number to call them.

To support Member of Parliament P. Rajeeve, go change.org and sign the petition. It doesn’t stop there. Share this information with your friends and family. Urge them to do the same.

I like to use my real name everywhere. But I can afford to that because I am in a reasonably safe place. But there are people who rationally fear retaliation from employers, bad police, bullies, or the rogue state. So it makes sense to stay anonymous.

It is very difficult to stay anonymous online. I believe there is no way you can remain anonymous forever. Finding you depends on how much time, intelligence, computer power and motivation your opponents have. Identification can only be delayed for practically long time depending on the steps you take.

This how-to is not probably complete. My knowledge is quite limited. But if I ever want to remain anonymous, I would follow all of them. In fact I follow most of these steps just to be safe online.

I have tried to make it as simple as possible for non techies. But there are pointers for the geeks to follow into the rabbit hole. They are usually marked with [g] for geek alert.

Trustable Fake Identity

There are two ways to remain anonymous online. Say if you are a blogger, your username could be so obvious that your adversaries will know you are trying to hide or you could use a very realistic fake identity which will confuse them. I would go second way. But I would give a thought about country, city, religion, sex and other identifiable characteristics of my identity before I decide on upon one. It’s very important to create a trustable fake identity. It’s not an easy job. So work on it.

Computer OS – Linux

The most important thing to remain safe online is to keep your computer safe. You need to be able to trust your computer to do the right thing. I use Linux (Debian/Ubuntu). I trust them because its open source and most of the vulnerabilities are available in the public domain. So I know whats going on in the system.

So use Linux as much as possible. If you can’t avoid using Windows or Mac try dual booting or a live CD. Linux like before is not very difficult to use these days. Distros like Ubuntu are very user-friendly. Try it.

Tails is a live CD or live USB that aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity. It helps you to use the Internet anonymously almost anywhere you go and on any computer. All connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network. The OS leaves no trace on the computer you’re using unless you ask it explicitly. It uses state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, email and instant messaging. It’s an all in one package which is very useful non geeks. Install it on your USB and use it.

For highly paranoid ones there are distros like TinFoilHat [g] available. It even protects you against electromagnetic radiation eavesdropping [g].
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Online identity is becoming as important as your offline identity. If you are not living in stone age you will be on one of those social networks which mainly forms your identity. All those user names become part of your digital identity.

As of today, You meet most of your online business partners on Facebook¹.  You share the stuff with your friends and family. Your friends or partners search on Facebook to get your mobile number. Even Google (or any) search for you leads to your Facebook profile².  What does that mean to you and me? Facebook will own all your digital identity.With 250 million profiles online, Facebook is on its way to become online identity hub.

What happens if you are removed from their network all of a sudden? You are lost. Your friends, family and business partners are lost. A place where you were supposed to hang out fun has become your main identity. Now you are not allowed enter that place.

So what do I do?
Simple. Own a domain. Develop your domain as your identity. A domain can take various forms in various kinds of online transaction, but it will remain your center of identity. With your own domain name, YOU own your online Identity. Its worth spending $10/year.

Use social networks only for networking and meeting friends. Bring your friends from social networks to your site. I would like to be known as thejeshgn.com online than @thej on twitter. ²

1. I have taken Facebook as an example because it is the biggest social network today. It can apply to any online social network.Last few days there has been a buzz about vanity urls on Facebook. Some are happy and some arent that happy. All these buzz forced me to write this post.

2. Now you know why I am so serious about ego searches.

I met both Tara and Chris @ BarcampBangalore 1 (yeah the first one to happen in Bangalore, in fact in India and the venue was Y!). Both of them were very friendly.They were very passionate about their work and their life. I still remember having a long conversation with Chris about microformats.

Few months back they ended their relationship. Both were very bold, open and very graceful about ending their romantic relationship. Both Chris and Tara blogged about their relationship and the transition happening in their life.

All I could do was to offer hugs to them on their blogs. And be surprised how open and graceful they were.

Why now?
Two of my friends almost reached the edge of their relationship and they weren’t that graceful. They removed each other from friends list, gtalk and what not..before coming back again.

Questions:
1. Should we be really open about our life and relationship online?
2. Why cant everybody be like Chris and Tara ( I mean be as graceful as them)?